The New Keyblade Masters
by magi6793
Summary: Our heroes have been separated but a new evil has arisen that brings them back together


**The New Keyblade Masters**

**Part1**

By: Bryan Jones, Shekinah Hudson, Christian Jeske & Levi Jones

All Parts (unless otherwise stated) By: Bryan Jones

A Cat In the wild by: Shekinah (Shriek) Hudson

The Lone Warrior by: Levi (Levantus) Jones

Naixtsirhc's Notes By: Christian Jeske

Legal Stuff/ Relations

All Characters owned by Disney are property of Walt Disney as are those owned by Square Enix and are in no way being used for monetary gain or are being said to be owned by the authors.

All person(s) that are neither Square Enix nor Disney are Fictional Characters that represent friends of mine, and their likeness and variation of their names are used with their consent and permission. Please no suing of any way shape or form I won't last 2 minutes in prison and I know the Jury will find me guilty. Jury people you know who you are.

-Bryan (Bryan) Jones

Precaution…

Thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, , I've got it!

For those of you reading, my name is Nathan and my "friend" Bryan wrote a Kingdom Hearts fan-fic. Now these stories, or whatever you want to call them, are purely for fun if you don't like them I don't care. Now, if you hate them because you just hate Kingdom Hearts (Not Kingdom of Hearts, you pathetic moron) then go cry to your mommy because you're finally coming out of the closet and your boyfriend Juan wants you to move in with him. Now that that's out of the way just a precaution, this story's plot and basic concept might change often and if that disturbs your reading, once again I don't care and if you don't tell your mom soon Juan will think you're just afraid of commitment. The mind of the body writing this is "Complex" to say the least. So, things might go unseen ways and un-understandable twists will happen, but all in the name of Kingdom Hearts, so it's worth it. Also, you should probably read part one first you illiterate buffoon so you can get to know are characters, unless that surpasses your yearly reading schedule of one story per year. So sit down with Juan and your mom and her sister-in-law, that she secretly likes more than your father, and enjoy.

-Nathan

Intro\Background

Please excuse my "associate" he can get a bit testy now and then so this story is going to be very difficult to write, but the show must go on as they do say. So, any way background, yes. So, in part one it was pre-BBS (Birth by Sleep) and the x-blade was forged by the three chosen warriors and an extra warrior, who was only in the story because "someone" wanted to impress her, but anyway. Once kingdom hearts was opened a law overpassed the universe causing all defeated heartless to float back to kingdom hearts rather than be returned to their normal human state. I'm sure once this gets on the internet you can read their stats and what-not, but for now I will explain. First, Levantus a warrior chosen by the Dream Sword, when Sora and Riku went to fight Xemnas and all the hearts fell and scattered the original warriors of light were given their bodies back and scattered away from each other, Levantus was sent to Twilight Town. Next, Christian chosen by the dream shield was so strong of heart and protected his friends so well he became a higher class nobody. Also, his heartless kept the shape of his body and when it fell it ran to collect and capture hearts while the new, Naixtsirhc (Night-sir-rock), was sent to Neverland with his memory completely gone. Bryan fell and regained his body in Radiant Gardens and while his staff stopped him from losing his memory, he had no way of knowing where his friends were or how to get to them. Shriek was reborn in the Deep Jungle were she found safety with Tarzan. Just so there's no confusion "we" will label whose story we're following until they all meet together for another battle against evil. So please enjoy and once again I sincerely apologize for Nathan's outbursts please forgive him.

-Oliver

After the test, you find out there's a part 2

(Bryan)

Bryan had found himself sitting outside his house thinking again about how to find his lost friends and get off this world. It was a peaceful world ever since the giant hearts in the sky had disappeared; Bryan knew that was Kingdom Hearts and the warrior that had been chosen by the weapon he helped forge setting the hearts free. The heartless didn't pop up anywhere anymore, no signs of nobodies, and unversed apparently hadn't been seen for years. The most magic, this once great mage, used nowadays was cure magic to help the sick, but besides that he barely made enough munny to make a living. He got up from the front of his house and walked inside deciding to start a fire and make some tea, maybe even do some reading. He looked at himself in the mirror and saw he hadn't changed much since the journey he had went on. His hair was the darkest shade of black that existed and reached his shoulders, he stood a good 5'8 out of his worn out mage boots. His favorite piece of clothing was his housewarming cloak he had gotten from someone who lived in the next district her name was Aerith. It was a neat semi-long brown cloak that fell to were his boot tips started and had a hood for rainy days. He thought it was a nice present and insisted on paying her for it, but she said to think of it as a welcoming gift. Aerith reminded him of Shriek but, she wasn't the real thing so he just shook her out of his mind. Once he had made his tea, which he always added an Elixir to give it that kick, just then there was a hard knock on the door and a man screaming.

"Open up! I've got two unconscious and one wounded! Please help!" the voice yelled.

Bryan hopped up, setting his tea down calmly (panicking was never good in these situations) and grabbing his staff. He opened the door and saw the man he often saw with Aerith, he believed his name was Leon, over his shoulders were Aerith and another girl he remembered was called Yuffie. Standing next to him was a man knelt over using his giant sword as a crutch; Bryan had seen him before but didn't know his name. Bryan saw that Leon looked panicked and motioned for them to come inside. The man with the giant sword set it down and took a seat on the living room couch, while Leon set the two girls in the center of the room looking over both of them. Bryan closed and locked the door then went over to look at what he had to deal with.

"So," he started, "what happened to them?"

Leon looked at him, took a deep breath looking down, and spoke, "I… I don't know…"

"By the time he got there the damage had already been done *grunt*," the man with the sword replied.

Leon looked at him with fury burning in his eyes, "AND WHAT WERE YOU DOING!? WHEN I GOT THERE YOU DIDN'T EVEN KNOW WHO OR WHAT HAD ATTACKED YOU OR THEM!" he yelled loud enough to shake the house.

"Please calm down, you can kill each other in your own homes but right now you're in mine." Bryan stated calmly, as to not spark anything.

He looked at the two women lying on the floor and kneeled to get a closer look at them. The strangest thing was they had no visible cuts or marks. The man had an obvious cut on his shoulder that was bleeding but, these two got out scotch free yet unconscious. He picked up his staff and focused his aura into it.

"Curaga," he said at a voice barely above a whisper.

A flower appeared above the man and showered him in light healing his wound and giving him a rejuvenated feeling. Something was wrong though, the two women still remained passed out on the floor. How could this be?

"What's wrong?" Leon asked looking worried.

"Magic isn't working…" Bryan said opening Yuffie's eyelids to find that she had no color in them, only white and black, "Something else is wrong with them completely what did you say attacked them?"

"We didn't," the man who wasn't Leon said, "when I got there… I pulled out my sword guarding their bodies when… when something attacked three times in the time it takes for someone to blink and ran off," he looked down as he finished that statement.

"Maybe Merlin will know," Leon recommended.

Bryan had heard of the great wizard Merlin and had even borrowed books from him on occasion but, Bryan had a faster way to figure out what was wrong. He sat in his normal meditative stance and laid his staff across his lap. Knowledge coursed through his mind at the speed of light until it found what he was looking for. The state of one who has lost there heart: unconsciousness, loss of irises, and no reaction to pain or other stimuli. He opened his eyes to find Leon and the other man staring at him. Bryan stood up, wiped off his cloak and looked at them.

"Leon and umm…" he started.

The man looked at him and chuckled, "The name's Cloud."

"Yes, thank you so, Leon and Cloud it seems your friends have had their hearts stolen by an entity of darkness," he explained, "I not sure what kind but, stealing two hearts and attacking too fast to see means a very powerful one."

Leon pulled out his sword and looked at Cloud and Bryan, "Then what are we waiting for let's go find and kill this thing".

"I'd be glad to come along and assist in any way possible," Bryan replied, "Also, I'd like to use some more spells besides my cure one, not to sound selfish".

"I'm in," Cloud said bluntly.

Leon looked over at Aerith and Yuffie lying on the ground, lifeless and unmoving. His eyes started watering then her looked back at Bryan, Bryan just nodded as if to say they would be fine. Leon didn't normally show emotion, he liked being the strong uncaring type, but deep down in his heart he knew he cared about his friends. This show of emotions made Cloud chuckle softly to himself as he grabbed his sword, Leon and Bryan did likewise and left the house to find this dark being.

An Old Friend… Sorta.

Leon, Cloud, and Bryan made their way through the Dark Depths all the way to Crystal Fissure before Cloud suddenly stopped and stared into the distance. Bryan and Leon looked at him confused as to why he stopped.

"Up ahead," he started, "Is the spot where I fought Sephiroth… What if he's there again? I don't think I have enough light left in me to survive…"

Bryan smirked at him, "It's okay. Leon and I are your friends; we'll be your light. Don't worry," Bryan said in a positive tone.

Cloud lifted his head and chuckled, "I hope you're right about that," he picked up his sword and moved onward. Bryan had a bad feeling about what they might be up against, what could move as fast as they had explained? Fast enough to not be seen? He could only think of one person or two actually, that could move that fast. He dismissed that thought and soon enough they arrived at the end of the dark depths. The part that overlooked the old run down castle where the keyhole resided and was once opened to lead Sora to the End of the World, but no one was around; had they missed something on their way here? Bryan, Leon, and Cloud spread across the small area looking for anything out of place. Finally, after almost half an hour of looking, Leon threw his hand at a nearby wall and looked up.

"How can it just disappear?" he said just above a whisper, and then looked back down, "It's probably gone; now I'll never get Aerith's heart back…"

Leon sighed feeling all hope and his friends' hearts were both gone forever. Cloud looked at Leon like he was acting pathetic, but Bryan knew the pain of losing your friends; it was hard and made one lose all hope. He took a deep breath and went over to comfort Leon; he put his hand on his sad companion's shoulder and spoke.

"I'm not going to lie to you by saying anything like it's ok or you'll be fine," he took a short breath and continued, "But whatever took their hearts WILL be back for more and that's when we'll get it".

Leon looked up at Bryan and he surprisingly cracked a smile at him. Even more surprising he embraced Bryan in a hug, which he never did. Bryan's cheek grew a bright red since he wasn't expecting anything like this, but nonetheless he returned the embrace. They separated from each other and just stared at each other for a short moment before Cloud raised his sword and called to them.

"Hey! If you two are done making out, we've got some company!" he yelled out.

Leon and Bryan quickly summoned forth their weapons and turned to where their friend was standing and saw that directly across from him was what resembled a person. Leon looked closer and saw that this 'person' was shrouded, and emanating, pure darkness. Bryan too noticed that fact, but also observed that it possessed a familiar looking shield and it itself looked familiar.

"Could it be?" Bryan whispered to himself.

Before he could think further on the subject the heartless-being plunged towards Cloud. Cloud jumped back to dodge it, thrusted his sword back, then forward letting out a tremendous 'HAA!' hitting the creature backwards. It snarled at them and attacked again as if nothing had happened. This 'thing' was completely savage and continued attacking without a single emotion or thought holding back his instinct to capture hearts. Bryan jumped a safe distance, while the creature's attacks where aimed at Cloud and Leon, then he casted a spell.

"WIND!" he declared.

And as always they were shrouded in sphere made from the wind around them. The heartless threw its shield at Leon, but the wind shield caused it to fall directly to the ground. Leon took this opportunity to launch a fire-shot directly at the creature. The creature maliciously smirked at the oncoming bullet, and then proceeded to jump over it, roll, pick up his shield, and hit Leon back with it. This creature was amazingly agile and strong, it had already thrown Cloud and Leon to opposite sides of the area and Bryan was making sure it couldn't escape through the entrance. Cloud grunted, picking himself off the ground and raising his sword once more.

"I… can't hold… it back any…longer," he said through grunts, and was then suddenly surrounded by electricity and darkness, "… OM…NI…SLASH!"

He sprouted a wing and started slashing and flying toward the creature. The creature stood its ground and waited until Cloud was a mere inch away before jumping over Cloud and landing on his back. Cloud shook, but the creature didn't fall off, it then proceeded to strike Cloud directly on the head before he could even finish his full attack. Just as that happen Bryan leaped and landed beside his fallen ally.

"Heal!" he exclaimed, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but what about him?" Cloud asked.

The creature roared and leaped towards them without a single hesitation, from falling off of Cloud. Bryan and Cloud dodge rolled away avoiding the attack, but then saw on the other side Leon focusing on his sword.

"It's over!" he yelled as his sword flashed in light and grew twice its original size, "POWER!"

He ran towards the foul beast dragging his sword behind him, the creature did like-wise. Then, they both jumped into the air and began their onslaught toward each other. Leon spun with his sword cutting the beast's torso; it roared and slashed at Leon with the sharp bottom of its shield. Leon deflected it and harshly landed on one knee; however the heartless landed with ease and sent Leon flying back with a tremendous blow from its shield. Leon landed with a thud on the ground aching in the pain from the fall. The creature slowly walked over, as if it was taunting Leon, licked its lips and went to take his heart. Leon was too weak to raise his sword, even though it had returned to its original size, but his friends weren't!

"BLIZZAGA!" Bryan shouted from the other side.

The heartless swung its shield behind its back to protect himself. The ice shattered and the creature slowly turned around to see that Bryan had that famous 'no-more-Mr. Nice Mage' look across his face.

"You still have one more to fight before you steal anymore hearts," he said with an angry tone, "Or are you too good to fight old friends… Christian?"

The beast took a step forward when suddenly its chest flashed and it fell to its knees in pain. Bryan knew it had to be the heartless of his long lost friend, and he was getting through to him. He also knew he was going to need more force than just relying on memories to pop up. Christian's heartless got back up and growled at Bryan as fiercely as it could.

"Okay old friend," he stated raising his staff, "have it your way. Thunder!"

Lightning crashed all around the heartless, it dodged the first few and blocked the rest with its shield. It then went on to start a spinning attack towards Bryan at full speed. Bryan swiftly created another wind barrier and ran/rolled out of the heartless' path. Christian's heartless eventually stopped spinning and threw his shield straight at Bryan with all its might.

"You never learn do you? Swapga! Firaga" Bryan said mockingly.

The heartless almost immediately switched places with Bryan and was struck with its own shield and a fireball after that. It laid there on the floor grunting and struggling to get up and cursing that it couldn't capture the hearts it desired so greatly.

"Giving up already? Come on Christian I thought you were stronger than that." Bryan mocked.

That was the last straw! The heartless leaped forward knocking Bryan back out of his spot at the center of the piece of land. It snickered, feeling that was it for the pest, but was shocked to see that Bryan had landed safely on the end of Leon's sword. Bryan and Leon looked at each other and nodded before Leon flung Bryan off of his sword causing him to fly right beside Christian's heartless.

"Firaga!" he exclaimed

The heartless held up his shield and blocked it, then before he could understand what was happening Cloud, who was on the other side, threw Bryan back towards Leon.

"Blizzaga!" Bryan shouted hitting the heartless dead on.

The heartless stumbled left, but Leon threw Bryan again and the heartless was hit right, then left, then right in an onslaught of magic attacks. The heartless grew tired of it and threw his shield at Bryan just as he bounced off of Cloud's sword.

"Perfect," Bryan said with a smirk, "Reflectaga!" Bryan was surrounded by a somewhat glass looking tube that bounced Christian's shield back towards him hitting him dead on the floor. And so lay the heartless on the ground lifeless, Cloud walked over and positioned his sword for a killing blow, but Bryan stopped him.

"Wait! That's, or was, my friend. Is there any way to get him back? Please" he begged to Cloud while looking between him and Leon. Cloud sighed and Leon stepped forward.

"That's only ever happened once, and even once he was back it was only half of him…" Leon said then remained silent, he took a slow breath and continued, "But there might be a way… Come with us."

Bryan threw the unconscious heartless over his shoulder and nearly collapsed, but pushed his way back to a standing position letting out a deep breath. He looked up at it and smiled.

"It's okay buddy we'll fix you," he said optimistically.

As he said that the heartless began glowing and two hearts flew from its body towards the town. Bryan was in pure amazement, he looked forward to tell Cloud and Leon, but saw that they had gone on without him. He struggled to catch up, but when he did they slowly made their way to Leon's house.

The Journey Ahead

Leon opened the front door and Cloud, Bryan, and himself all entered.

"Lay him down on the middle of the floor," Leon said to Bryan, who proceeded to carefully place his friend's heartless on the floor.

Bryan examined the house he had just entered, and saw that in one corner it was piled from ceiling to floor in complex looking books. Against the other wall was a chalk board with mathematic equations written all across it, and toward the front of the house was a man typing away on a computer. The man turned around to reveal he was a slightly elderly man with brown-blonde hair and a toothpick in his mouth.

"Well look whose back?" he said, "Did you get the groceries we needed?"

"Sorry Cid, but other 'important' things came up," Leon said apologetically.

"What could more important than eatin'?! And who's this guy?" Cid said sounding annoyed.

Leon opened his mouth to say something, but Bryan cut him off.

"Please excuse my intrusion sir, but a Yuffie and Aerith, as they are called, were attacked by a heartless and we went to retrieve their hearts," Bryan explained, "If it's any consolation I'd happily used what munny I have left to treat all of you to a meal."

Cid laughed, "That'd be great I know a great Chinese place that does take out. So, what's with the dead beat on our floor?"

Now it was Cloud's turn, "A heartless that the mage wants to save…"

Bryan gave Cloud an angry glare just as Cid got up to examine Christian's heartless. It just laid there. Lifeless. Unmoving. Cid didn't dare touch it for fear of having his life stolen or even worse, his heart. He kneeled down next to it, as did Bryan, to examine the heartless closer.

Bryan leaned forward, "Christian? Friend? Are you there?"

There was silence throughout the house. Then suddenly the heartless jerked violently gasping for air. Bryan pinned 'him' down and looked him in the eyes, while Cid and Leon kept his legs restrained.

"Christian calm down! Christian it's me, wake up… Please!" Bryan begged.

The heartless stopped and stared at him, and then it thumped back on the ground. The darkness swarmed off of him and vanished in a mist and there laid the actual Christian! Bryan smiled and ran over to pick his friends and hug him.

"Christian it so good to have you back!" he screamed with joy.

But something was wrong. His friend wasn't hugging back; in fact he was completely limp. Bryan pulled back, still holding his friend, and saw that his eyes were closed and he still wasn't breathing.

"Christian? Christian!?" Bryan yelled shaking his lifeless friend.

Cid and Leon pried Bryan off of Christian, who immediately fell on the floor with a loud thump. Tears began streaming down Bryan's face as he witnessed that his friend was basically dead. Leon and Cid struggled to make him sit down as he burst into full-blown crying. He struggled to break free; Leon and Cid kept him down until he gave up and just sat there, crying.

"Is… Is *sniff*. Is there any way to get him back?" he asked through his emotional breakdown.

Leon looked at Bryan, and then at Christian's lifeless body. He closed his eyes and focused, then he flipped his hair out of his eyes (even though he knew it would fall right back), and then spoke.

"Well," he said slowly, "we know it can be done, but first you'll have to find your friends other half."

"Other half?" Bryan asked confused on what Leon meant.

"When a heartless is created so is a nobody, the empty shell of the heart. It seems your friend's nobody is the half of him that knows how to stay alive. You need that half," Leon explained calmly.

"Well that's just great! Except my 'friends' aren't here in this town or on this world for that matter!" Bryan was furious; his wisdom was non-existent at the moment of all these emotions he had never shown before. Deep down all he wanted was his friends back, not half-a-friend, not some of his friends, just all his friends.

Cloud, who was still standing against the wall, lifted his head and spoke, "Get a grip man. Emotions only cloud your mind, scatter your thoughts, and make you weak. As for finding your friends, if you have them, where can they be if not here?"

Bryan explained the whole story, everything he could remember up to the point where he woke up one day in Radiant gardens.

Leon was next to speak, "So your one of the legendary beings who forged the x-blade?" Bryan nodded, "Then it would be in the best interest of our world and all other worlds if we helped you find your friends, because wherever there is darkness light needs to be there. Cid!"

"Ya? What is it?" Cid asked.

"We still have spare parts at the lab; fix our friend up a ship." Leon ordered.

Cid nodded and went to leave the house; he opened the front door, and then stopped.

"Well! Look whose well and awake," he said.

"Nice to see you too Cid," a voice said.

"Yup. Can't keep the greatest ninja in the world down," said another.

Cid walked out and in came Aerith and Yuffie; they had awakened from their heartless slumber! Leon and them exchanged hugs then Aerith walked over too where Cloud was.

"What's wrong?" she asked, "Not happy to see us."

"Ya come on Cloud crack a smile or something," Yuffie chipped in.

"Humph," he replied flipping his hair.

Aerith looked at Bryan in a confused way, as if she wanted to ask who he was, but didn't want to be rude. She stepped closer to him and Bryan scooted back unaware of what she was doing.

"Have we met before?" she asked politely, "I feel like we have, but I'm not sure".

"Uhhh… Actually we have. In fact you gave me this cloak as a housewarming gift. Remember?" Bryan replied showing her the cloak he was wearing.

She examined it then it hit her, "Oh! Ya I did, didn't I? It's Brandon right? The mage?" she asked.

Bryan took a deep breath before he replied so he didn't sound angry, "It's Bryan actually".

They kept on with the conversation, as did Leon, Cloud, and Yuffie, until they found themselves all sitting down at a table talking to one another. Bryan felt it was appropriate to explain his existent to his new friends as well as Christian's body on the floor. Just as he finished his story, that had them all silently paying attention, Cid walked back in.

"It wasn't easy, but you're ready for takeoff bud," he said.

"Thank you. I am truly grateful and I hope that someday I can repay you," Bryan said humbly bowing, as he 'tried' walking out the door, until Cid stopped him.

"Not so fast hot rod. You still owe us dinner, remember?" Cid reminded him.

Bryan gulped and thought, "There goes all my travel munny…" he went to his place and grabbed his remaining munny, then returned to order the food.

"Yes… That's right… Yes two orange chickens with rice and one vegetarian meal… Oh and also a low Mein with beef and broccoli… Yup, that's all… How much?! Yes, I can pay… Thank you. *click*" Bryan hung up the phone and went to sit down with his face buried in his hands.

Aerith and Yuffie tapped him on the shoulders and shook him a little then Yuffie spoke, "Don't worry we won't let you leave empty handed," she said pointing to Aerith.

"Here take this a friend left it and I'm sure he won't mind," she said handing him a pouch that contained five thousand munny.

"Thank you," he said, "I am truly grateful for all your kindness *knock knock*"

"Food's here!" Cid shouted.

Bryan grabbed the food from the man and handed it to Cid, who wasted no time in handing the food out, and paid the man the twenty-four thousand munny for the meal. After the meal was finished Cid and the rest of the group walked Bryan to the old Ansem lab where the gummi ship waited. Bryan stepped inside the vessel that would lead him to his friends, and was immediately struck with fear. All the flashing lights, beeping sounds, and numerous switches and buttons. How was he going to navigate the universe in something he couldn't work? His new friends must have seen the look of distress on his face because they bursted laughing.

"Mage of wisdom doesn't know how to work a gummi ship?" Cid mocked.

"Uhhh… Mages normally stay low tech so… ya," Bryan said embarrassed.

"It's okay," Cid assured him, "We'll help you out along the way with that little intercom screen over there".

Bryan indeed saw the little screen he spoke of, "Okay, *sigh*, wish me luck".

They all waved goodbye as Bryan started the ship and flew off on his journey to find his friends and half of one.

Unexpected Detour

Bryan was amazed at how beautiful space was; it was full of an infinite numbers of tiny lights that could be either stars or worlds. He couldn't remember seeing anything more serene and gorgeous than the cosmos. Well, except maybe one thing. An image of her flashed in his head and he clenched his fist tight around his staff.

"I will find you, wherever you are. And this time I won't hide my emotions anymore. I won't lose you again… Ever," he whispered to himself.

The ride was smooth and uneventful, Cid had programmed the ship to only stop if there was a nearby world to land on then it was up to Bryan whether to land it or not. Then suddenly, the ship rocked and did a barrel roll to the right and started going warp speed in another direction. The ship's momentum pushed Bryan back as he struggled to get to the intercom and call Cid. He finally made it, holding on to the dashboard he made the call to Cid.

"*ring ring* *ring ring* *static* Hello trouble already?" asked Cid's voice.

"The ship is going crazy and warp speeding in a completely direction then the course intended!' Bryan screamed holding on for his life.

"Whoa! It sure is! Well, I can't help something is pulling the ship in. Sorry bub," Cid said apologetically.

Just great this is why Bryan hated technology, something always went wrong. Bryan struggled to get up, but the force was keeping him pinned to the floor. He was about to pass out from the tremendous force on his skull when he heard a voice.

"Come on Bryan blacking out. I thought you were stronger than that," the voice said.

"Christian?" Christian!" Bryan screamed using all his strength to stand up.

Once he was fully standing he looked around, but no one was there. He was still alone in his ship going at light speed. Did the force cause him to hear his friend's voice? But, it seemed so real. Then suddenly the ship jerked to a halt sending Bryan crashing into the front window, the pain was intense. He rolled onto the floor cringing in pain as the ship landed on the planet it was strangely drawn to. Bryan put his hand the dashboard and pulled himself to his feet. He shook himself, grabbed his staff, and walked outside the ship, scanning the surroundings of this new, and strange, world. There were trees and a giant crooked tower at the edge of the area. The entire place was surrounded by strange colors, literally all around. No clouds or land in the distance, just the strange colors everywhere. Bryan stepped away from the ship and made his way toward the strange castle, slowly. He paced slowly looking around for anything strange, since he saw nothing he dropped his guard and was then attacked. A dusk had wrapped itself around his leg and caused him to trip. As he hit the ground the dusk and four other nobodies rose from the ground, as did a pack of heartless. Bryan regained his composure as fast as he could and jumped up, poised and ready to fight. All the evil creatures jumped at him at once, but he was prepared.

"Reflectaga!" he declared and the nobodies and heartless were scattered in every direction.

A few of the shadow heartless were destroyed, but the nobodies remained as did some heartless that resembled soldiers. Three of the soldiers jumped back than began spinning towards Bryan.

"Not this again!" he says to himself as he jumped out of the path of the soldiers, "Blizzaga!"

Multiple ice shards flew from Bryan's staff destroying the heartless. Seeing an opening he ran towards the castle, but right before he reached the steps a nobody rose right in front of him. The nobody quickly swung at him sending him flying back. Bryan clenched his teeth as he made contact with the ground and more nobodies appeared right in front of him poised to strike. Bryan knew it was going to hurt one way or another, but still he closed his eyes and turned his head waiting for the end of himself. He thought things would go fine, that he would find his friends and finally tell Shriek, that… Suddenly he heard a high-pitched voice say a spell.

"Thunder" it screamed.

Powerful bolts of lightning crashed into the ground destroying the dusks and sending the other nobodies flying away from Bryan. Then the mysterious savior jumped off his standing ground (the roof of the tower) and landed on the ground killing the nobodies with a single swing from his sword. Bryan focused his eyes on the sword, it was gold with a silver handle and a… Chain! A keyblade? It did in fact resemble a key; Bryan brought himself to his feet and grabbed his staff just as the mysterious savior finished the last of the nobodies. The keyblade warrior turned around to reveal he resembled a large mouse: ears, a tail, and all.

"I saw you needed a hand and decided to lend a…" he started.

"Firaga!" Bryan yelled sending a fireball at the mouse, who blocked it with his keyblade.

"Whoa, calm down please. I mean you no harm," the mouse explained.

"I don't know what you're trying to pull, but last time I saw someone with that weapon he nearly killed me and my friends," Bryan said in a furious tone.

"Well, gosh who could've done that?" The mouse said putting his keyblade down, "Look I'm sure this is just one big misunderstanding".

Bryan lowered his staff, "He said his name was Riku".

The mouse gasped, then went back to speaking, "Riku must have used the darkness to travel back in time to stop the x-blade from being forged, but that means…" he paused.

There was a long silence before he gasped with wide eyes looking at Bryan, and then kneeled in front of him, "You must be the great Dream Mage. I am honored to be in your presence. Sir"

Bryan was confused by all of this, but then he remembered. He forged the x-blade, along with Christian, Levantus, and Shriek; more must have been forged from the original. Still, why would someone try to kill a weapon that appeared to be a tool for good?

"Ummm… Rise, I guess?" Bryan said with uncertainty, as the Mouse stood up, "Can I get an explanation of everything going on in this time, and your name if you don't mind."

The mouse smiled picking his keyblade back up, "Well my name's Mickey. King Mickey, King of Disney castle, as for an explanation I'm sure Master Yen Sid would be happy to explain."

Bryan looked up at the strange castle and just assumed it was this Master Yen Sid's home. So Bryan and King Mickey entered the castle and made their way up.

The Retired Master

After what seemed like an eternity of stairs, the two warriors made it to the very top of the tower. Mickey entered first and as Bryan tried to enter Mickey stopped him.

"Wait out here until I say to come in," he ordered.

"But, why?" Bryan asked confused.

Mickey sighed, "I'm not sure if the master can help you or if he'll even believe you are who you say you are".

Bryan smirked and summoned forth his staff, "Is this proof enough?"

"*gasp* Of course! Only the dream warriors can wield the Dream Weapons!" Mickey realized, "Okay wait here".

Mickey walked into the room and Bryan waited like he was told. Great this was all he needed getting pulled to another world he never intended to visit, all because of that accursed keyblade. Bryan clenched his teeth just thinking about the weapon that almost took his life that he had to now somehow trust. While Bryan stood there waiting he noticed something in the corner of his eye. He turned quickly and nearly dropped his staff, in front of him stood Christian. He looked at his friend who had changed dramatically since he had last seen him. He was wearing a white neatly pressed white lab coat, also his hair was neatly combed and clean.

"Nice outfit, is it not? We can't dress like savages our whole lives I suppose," his friend said.

Bryan couldn't find the words that he needed to say to his friend, but then he found a question that seemed to work, "Christian how did you get here?"

His friend smiled at him, straightened out his lab coat, and then answered, "I did not get 'here' per-say. I actually have found the right resources to build a lab and what you see in front of you is no more than a computer made hologram".

"Oh…" Bryan said disappointed, "Then… Where exactly are you?"

Christian paused for a minute, or so, then answered, "Well, since you ask, I've been studying exactly how a heart works and how that can uhhh… help us defeat the darkness, yes that's it, but for now you can find me in a world called Neverland."

"Sweet! When I'm done here I'm coming for you man. Then we can find Levantus and Shriek" Bryan assured him.

"No!" Christian said abruptly, Bryan stared at him confused, "It's ummm… It's just my research, yes that's it. My research isn't fully complete and we might need it to rid the world of darkness, so please find the others first then come to Neverland and get me. I mean if you don't mind".

Bryan was confused with his friend, but agreed anyway, "Okay, I'll find the rest and then come for you. You can count on me."

They nodded at each other and the hologram faded. Just as it did Bryan felt a tug on his sleeve and saw it was Mickey telling him to go see Master Yen Sid. Bryan walked in and saw a great sorcerer sitting behind a desk in a room covered in books and containing a great window. Bryan entered cautiously and then made eye contact with the man as he presented his staff to prove he was The Dream Mage.

"Aa, you possess the dream rod," he paused, "So what my apprentice said is true".

Bryan nodded, "You must be Master Yen Sid then. Can you please explain to me what is happening in the fight against the darkness, nothingness, and negativity?"

Yen Sid smiled at the young mage in front of him, "Such decent manners. Much better than that of others I know. Any how the negativity is almost completely gone in this day in age, the darkness is… 'Manageable'. As for the nothingness… the final battle is being fought as we speak."

Yen Sid motioned for King Mickey to come forward and handed him a rock that Bryan recognized as the rock from The Dictator's cave.

"Mickey my friend, take this. It will transport you to the island where Donald, Goofy, and Kairi at currently at, if our heroes succeed they will be there to," Mickey took the rock and ran outside to use it.

As soon as he had been transported away the two mages continued their conversation. Yen Sid looked carefully at Bryan before speaking.

"So you know already how creatures of darkness and nothingness are made already I assume?" Bryan nodded at this statement, "Good, but when one becomes a creature of darkness and nothingness, but possess a strong heart the nothingness body keeps it human shape, while the darkness keeps the shape and is clouded with pure darkness. Thirteen strong beings like this have created an organization called 'Organization XIII'. Twelve have been destroyed and the keyblade bearers are fighting the leader, Xemnas."

The master paused to let this new information sink into Bryan's thoughts. An enemy that can act and look like normal people, the road ahead was going to be more difficult than Bryan originally thought. He raised his head from his long process of thought and motioned for the master to continue.

"I also assume you are looking for the wielder of the Dream Sword and Dream Shield, as well as a summoner for you journey," Bryan once again nodded, "Yes, well with the darkness growing more powerful you will need 'up-to-date' tools, so to speak."

Master Yen Sid snapped his fingers and in, from another door, came three fairies who gathered around Yen Sid. He whispered to them and they left again. It was silent and still, and then they came in back again holding a shirt and a pair of shorts, that where a vivid dark blue.

"These were originally a backup, but I don't think he'll need it so you may have it great mage," Yen Sid said offering forth the clothes.

Bryan had a confused looked on his face as he examined the clothes, "Ummm… what exactly are they for?"

Master Yen Sid chuckled, "They are clothes that allow you to summon forth a keyblade and boost your magic skills tenfold, all you need is this," as he said this a strange glowing blue orb appeared in his hand.

Bryan agreed he would like that and the fairies went over to put the new gear on him. They tried to first remove his cloak, but he stopped them.

"I'll put them on in my own time," he said in a dark tone, "No one touches the cloak," and they handed him the clothes and flew off to their room.

"You'll also need these," he said and handed Bryan a red orb, a yellow orb, and a white orb, "The orbs will unlock forms to the warriors who are destined for each one".

Bryan put the orbs away, "Is that all?" he asked.

"I'm guessing for your form you'll also need this," Yen Sid outstretched his hand and in a flash of light a keyblade appeared.

The keyblade had a circle handle that stretched into a straight blade, the entire thing decorated in stars, with a wizard hat at the edge. The chain's decoration was a spell book.

"This keyblade's name is the Sorcerer's Apprentice; you need simply to ask the light for strength and the keyblade will replace your staff and give you greater magical powers. The same for your friends, when the orbs change their clothes they two will obtain keyblades." the master explained to Bryan.

Bryan thanked the master and told him of his journey to find his lost friends and give them their new forms and weapons. Master Yen Sid wished him luck and Bryan made his way down the stairs of the tower and left in the gummi ship.

"Good luck great mage. Let the light guide you… and what is destined to happen, not." The master said to himself as he sat back down and waited to see what unfolded.

Deep Jungle

Bryan tried to contact his friends in Radiant Gardens, but no one answered it was just static. Bryan tried a few buttons until he found a universal clock; it seemed to him it was night time in Radiant Gardens which explained why no one would answer him. With that in mind Bryan decided to rest himself for the journey ahead, besides if the ship detected a world it would just stay stopped until Bryan awoke and chose to land on the world or not. He turned off the internal lights, made a nice little bed on the captain's seat and drifted into sleep. Bryan began dreaming in his sleep, he always remembered his dreams thanks to his mind being serene, but lately emotions had been clouding his mind. In his mind he was dreaming he was sitting on a blanket in the middle of a vast field, looking into the distance. He seemed to be alone when suddenly something tackled him from behind sending him and the stranger rolling down the field until they stopped. Bryan focused his eyes to see the person on top of him, and it turned out to be Shriek. She snickered then helped Bryan get up. She continued laughing and he just laughed too and pushed her down, this caused her to growl as Bryan tried to get a running start. She finally caught up to him and tackled him to the ground again. This went on for a while until they finally returned to the blanket and the two of them laid down facing each other, not speaking just looking. After a while of this Bryan sat up, Shriek followed looking confused at why he suddenly was sitting up. He looked deeply into her eyes and took her hands into his.

"I know this is just a dream, but," he stopped to take a deep breath and hold back tears, "I will get you back. We barely knew each other, but I miss you for reasons I can't put into words, please wait for me."

He sniffled and wiped his tears away and she just purred against him as if to say it would be okay. They rubbed their cheeks together and Bryan and her exchanged smiles that showed more than just happiness, he knew this was just a dream but he was going to try and make his dream a reality. In his dream he closed his eyes as the real him opened his eyes and saw that the ship and come to a stop. Bryan looked out the front window and saw it was a planet covered in dense forests and contained a large river. Animals probably, survival skills needed, anyone of his friends could be there. He pressed the land button and the ship landed on top of a great sturdy tree and dropped Bryan down. Bryan fell through the branches and leaves until he came to the ground, landing gracefully on his feet. He scanned the area and saw nothing out of the ordinary, it was very dark on the ground do to the fact that the trees where so tall and thick that they blocked out the sun above. Bryan tightened his grip on his staff looked around and quickly changed into his new clothes hoping nothing was watching him. The clothes were stylish and comfortable; Bryan couldn't wait to check out the new powers they possessed. With that done Bryan made his way through the depths of this jungle world. Nothing unusual happened and no heartless seemed to be around, but just then Bryan heard a rustling in the nearby bushes. He prepared himself to fight, and then off to his right he saw something jump into the trees. He turned then the thing landed in the bushes to his left.

"Who's there?" he asked annoyed right as he was tackled to the ground, and as he opened his eyes and looked up he gasped, "It's you!?"…

A Cat in the Wild

(Shriek)

Not quite sure where she was, Shriek wandered around aimlessly. Her thoughts, which she actually did have, were quite distressed. You would think that she would be glad to be here in this jungle; but the fact that she didn't remember how she got here made her uncomfortable. No matter how far she walked, she was completely lost, and at this point, hungry.

As she searched for a river or any other kind of food, she could sense that someone was following her. Shriek turned around, at full speed a jaguar was coming at her. In a spur of the moment reflex, she flipped out of its path. The jaguar was ready for a second try, its sights unwavering from Shrieks position. As it ran at her, she prepared to block the pounce. Just then, Tarzan leaped out of nowhere and tossed away the foe with his bare hands. Shriek was amazed by this.

The more the foe tried to attack the weaker it became; its attempts were ultimately useless. She and Tarzan were relentlessly attacking it. A hit or two was received though, mostly to Shrieks shoulder and leg. At that point, Shriek became very upset and began bashing it over the head with her staff. In the jaguar's last act of bravery, it slashed once more at Shriek. Taking the blow, she flinched backwards away from the beast. She glared with such fury, that even such a big cat as the jaguar was, was stricken with fear. Shriek, acting out on this anger, swiftly stabbed just below him, lifting up and forcefully spinning him around on the end of her staff. With a jerk of her arms, the jaguar was launched away from them and slammed into a tree base. He had taken enough damage and was struggling to rise, clearly weakened. Shriek walked over to the jaguar, still glowering; but instead of harming it, she kneeled down beside him and just blankly looked into his eyes. Slowly, the jaguar walked away calmly, not planning to attack. Shriek watched as he walked away. He knew that she was still full of contempt, but had enough pity to walk away without doing her more harm. With a sigh Shriek turned around to see Tarzan standing there a bit dumbfounded. She smiled and went over towards him; she shrugged as if to ask him 'Where to now?' Tarzan motioned for her to follow, and with that he led her to his tree house.

When they had arrived, a few hours had past, now nearly sunset. Tarzan led her into the place and proceeded to show her where she would be staying. Shriek nodded, somewhat in a sad manner. She couldn't fully understand why she felt so depressed. She had no reason to feel so empty and heartbroken. Taking a moment to herself she walked over to an open window, she looked out to the distance, looking for something that wasn't there. The parts that would lead up to why she felt this way were missing in her mind. It bothered her, almost to the point of trying to hide, to run from this place on an all-out search for whatever it is she was trying to find. Shriek sat in the window with her back leaning on the frame. She sighed; she was never this troubled before now. In fact, anything before now was a bit of a haze. Her thoughts resonated deep into her soul, who am I? Why am I here? How did I get here? How come I don't know anything from before here? She closed her eyes, nothing seemed to help her. When she opened her eyes again, she'd had enough. Shriek jumped full on out of the window, she didn't need to stay in some forest-man's tree house! She was a free spirit! At last a bit of who she was had come to her. Before hitting the ground, she quickly took hold of a vine. Her feet slid across the jungle floor. Letting go of the vine she let herself slide, the wind in her hair was by far the best experience she had ever felt. Except. She became distracted, smashing into a tree.

"Nghhhee..." She groaned in pain as she fell.

Letting out a sigh she just laid there staring up at the trees, remembering many other things. Power, friends...A boy. But not just any boy, one she felt she had known at one time, one she cared about, but she still couldn't quite make everything out. His face was still a blur. She closed her eyes in wait, longing for someone to find her out here.

As she slept more of her past played out like a motion picture. She had been so happy, her and her friends. Finding people who didn't judge her for who she was. A smile grew on her face while she slept; such pleasant and warm emotions that she couldn't remember ever having before. It was almost too good to be true. Before she knew it, the sun had risen. A beam of light shined onto her closed eyelid. As she woke, she yawned and stretched. The things she had remembered her dreams made her long to see them again. Shriek rose to her feet and began to wander around the forest, looking at all that there was to see. The butterflies, the tall grass, the bamboo, and to her most intrigue, toweringly tall trees that seemed to have no end. For a while she ran through the forest stroking her fingertips along things as she went. Taking in the purity and freedom there was here. When she spotted a furry creature out of the corner of her eye, she quickly snapped into survival mode, swiftly snatching it in her hands. She lifted up the creature by the tail and laughed humorously. The mouse looked very scared and confused. She lightly pecked its nose and set it back down. Waving her finger at it and pointing at her mouth was her way of saying, 'don't worry, I won't eat you.' She continued on from there, now just calmly walking and looking at her surroundings. Taking note of all the things she encountered. Then suddenly, falling to her knees, stricken with such a feeling of emptiness. Even in the vastness of this place, with all of her abilities and instincts. This alone would not be able to make her happy. She felt so alone, like a white feather floating in an abyss of black and hopelessness. As tears began to fall from her face, she couldn't help feeling this way. For she truly was alone in this forest. Just as Shriek curled into a tight ball to conceal her sadness. She felt the feeling of cold metal on her neck. Turning her head cautiously she saw a tall man holding a gun at her. Letting out a scream of fear she quickly jolted to her feet and twisted the gun out of his hand and then turned and ran for her life. The pure fear of death made it hard for her to breathe; she quickly hid herself, but was unable to silence the loudness of her pants of fear.

"A rare breed it seems has shown up in this Jungle. Come out little kitten, here kitty, kitty."

Shriek clenched her eyes closed and held on tight to her staff. She was between a rock and a hard place. A part of her wanted to try and be friends, even though she knew how dangerous he was. She began to shake as her fear had taken over her mind, clouding her instincts and abilities. A shot. Her eyes jolted open, not even thinking she fled, ran as fast as she could. Another shot. She stopped. He now stood in her way. Looking the man in the eyes, she put off the impression that she was not afraid of him.

"Now then, will you describe to me how it is you came to be?" the man asked her.

Shriek just stood there, staring at him. Slowly losing her composure. She didn't even remember where she came from, who her parents were, or if she even had any.

"N...Nooo." She managed to say as she slowly backed away from him.

"Well, I guess that doesn't really matter then does it." He again raised his gun to her.

In her mix of feelings, the strongest was the will to live. Shriek lifted up her staff, just in time to block the bullet that came at her, but also knocking it out of her hands. Shriek first whimpered in fear then lashed out at the man with her nails. After this, the man quickly stepped back, preparing for another shot. Tarzan, yet again, came to her rescue. Tarzan tackled him away from Shriek, causing the bullet to be fired just above her head. Tarzan kept him busy while Shriek picked up her staff, somewhat wondering how she had used it in the past. In a spur of a moment, she closed her eyes trying to remember, and it came to her.

"Siii..."

And sure enough, Simba appeared next to her. Somewhat to her amazement, he already knew that there was danger that needed tending to. Simba quickly went for the now unoccupied gunman, roaring and slashing. This ended up making the man stricken with fear and running away. Simba looked back at her seeming to smile, and then he disappeared. Shriek smiled a bit thankful that things had worked out even if she didn't intend to do so.

"Alone. Danger." Tarzan told her.

Shriek shook her head at him. Pointed to her, made a menacing pose, and then growled. Tarzan smiled slightly and nodded at her, then jumped into a tree and left. With a slump of her shoulders, Shriek relieved herself from the fear that she had experienced. She then looked around again, realizing that she was alone, again. The more she thought about it the more she felt that death was not what she was truly afraid of. She was afraid of being alone. In another attempt to be freed from this place she set out with a new mission, not to try and find out why she existed, but where her friends were. Shriek ran all over the place, looking, smelling, and feeling. Trying to find any trace of them, but of course, she found nothing. She ran, and ran, then jumped tree to tree tirelessly searching. Until she saw her staffs dimly glow. Shriek jumped down from the tree, and hid behind a bush. She could see the figure of someone but not quite make it out. She squinted her eyes to try and make out details about him. Then she decided to get a view from above and she jumped into a tree, but even this didn't help. He was still unfamiliar. Though she loved nature, it was getting in her way of seeing exactly who this was. It was either branches or leaves that sat in her way of his face. She jumped down from the tree, trying to approach him a bit so that she could see him better. Too good in fact, he could see her. At least she could make out it was a male. Shriek finally made out who he was; his stature and soul resonated with him just like she remembered feeling before. Hearing his voice, knowing it was him, she tackled him to the ground. So glad that she had found him at last.

Reunited

(Bryan + Shriek)

The two just lay there, overjoyed by the very sight of each other. After what felt like forever, they both slowly stood up staring into each other's eyes hoping that this wasn't a dream. Then they stood there, in the middle of the jungle, silent until Bryan finally whispered something.

"It's really you," he said with a huge smile as tears of joy began forming in his eyes.

She stared at him returning the smile, she didn't remember his name, but that didn't matter to her right now. All that mattered was that he was here and she knew he was a friend, even though he felt like something more. She embraced him feeling his warmth and he returned the warm embrace. She let go and looked him over, then noticed something different about him. She pulled on the sleeve of his new shirt, giving him a confused look.

He chuckled rubbing behind his head, "New clothes, but I swear there's a good explanation for them".

He told her the whole story of Master Yen Sid, Radiant Gardens, and how he needed her help.

"So you see," he continued explaining, "I need your help to get Christian and Levantus back".

She stared at him trying to remember who these other people were. She tried, but just kept getting a pounding headache. He put his hand on her back as a signal for her to stop. She quickly hopped up and motioned for him to follow her; she was going to show him the tree house and hopefully Tarzan.

(Clayton)

"Blasted animals and animal…people…things!" Clayton cursed, "I'll kill every last one of them, but not with this useless piece of junk!"

He threw is gun at the base of a tree as darkness began to rise around him. He began breathing heavily as the darkness grew and he felt that odd feeling of power he had once felt before. His look of anger instantly turned to one of pure fear.

"No, no, no," he pleaded, "Not this again! I don't want to be lost again, I don't want the darkness".

As he kept whimpering like a scared little child, a man stepped out from the shadows. A man wearing a black hooded cloak that stared right in Clayton's direction and then began shaking his head.

"Wow," he started off, "Can't believe the boss wants you to do a job this big, but I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Am I right?"

Clayton looked at the man with a look of fear still on his face, "Who are you?"

"Me? I'm nobody, in more ways the one," he stopped to chuckle at his own joke as Clayton just sat there, "Well; just call me the answer to your prayers. You want revenge, but don't want to lose your heart to the darkness again right?"

Clayton nodded at the man feeling less and less scared as the man continued talking.

"Well then, you're gonna want this," he said reaching into his pocket and pulling out a whistle, "I gotta give the boss props for making this, never seen anything like it before".

Clayton walked toward the man cautiously and took the strange whistle, looking at it confused he asked, "What exactly does it do?"

The man chuckled at this comment, "I guess even a dark heart is still just a stupid heart. Anyway when a heartless is formed or created, or whatever you want to call it, so is a nobody. So this whistle will allow you to control your old pet as well as its nobody."

Clayton smiled maliciously and blew the whistle, and then it was silent for a while. Suddenly, a patch of trees was chopped/ smashed right in front of Clayton, but there stood nothing. The same thing happened to the trees behind him, nothing there. Until both creatures stopped their camouflage powers and revealed themselves to Clayton and the strange man.

"Hello old friend," Clayton said petting the snout of his old heartless partner, "and what of this one? How do I control both of these creatures at once?"

"Surprisingly enough," the man said, "the boss thought of that too. And in case you're wondering who 'the boss' is, it is of no concern to you."

The man snapped his fingers and out of the shadows stepped forward another man in a black cloak. The second man took of his hood to reveal a man with long flowing pink hair, and while he took his hood off flowers fell around him. Then before Clayton could say anything about the pink hair or flowers, the man summoned forth a mighty looking scythe, with a pink blade.

"Marluxia here will be your partner," the first man explained, "since that 'cat-person' has a partner as well".

Clayton clenched his fist and teeth, "She has partners?! As in more than just the blasted gorilla man!"

"No need to get angry," Marluxia said, "They will meet their end soon enough. Let us head off".

Clayton nodded and mounted his heartless as did Marluxia and they headed off to find Shriek and anyone else who dare stand in their way.

(Bryan + Shriek)

Shriek had made it to the stairs leading to the tree house, still waiting for Bryan to catch up. Bryan fell off the branches they had been sliding on and hit the floor with a thud.

"Uggghhh!" he groaned trying to get up, "There is no way I'm going to be able to handle her wildness."

Shriek walked over and looked at him lying there. Bryan quickly got up, brushed himself off and continued following her to the tree house. They walked inside of it, Shriek like it was a normal home, while Bryan stepped inside extra cautiously. Shriek sat down looking at him with the cutest smile and patted the ground next to her. Bryan sat next to her, getting comfortable, and they both looked at the beauty of the forest and the clear blue sky. Bryan took a deep breath of fresh air and looked over at Shriek, he had to tell her. He took her hands into his, she turned to look at him, what was he doing she thought?

"Shriek," he started saying, "a single day didn't go by that I didn't think of you. I felt like part of me was missing *pause* I guess what I'm trying to say is…"

Just as he was about to finish telling her the ceiling broke apart and pieces of it fell all around the floor. Bryan grabbed Shriek's hand and pulled her away in hopes of protecting her from getting hit. He waited for the dust to settle and when he looked he was met with a horrific scene. He had done just the opposite of what he planned on doing, instead of pulling her out of the way he had brought her forward right where a huge chunk of ceiling had fallen. His heart felt like it had stopped and a heavy feeling washed over him at what he had done. Then he saw a claw reach forward and pick her up slowly, but Bryan couldn't bring himself to move. As he looked at the owner of the claw he saw a giant heartless that resembled a chameleon and right to next to it a dusk that resembled the same thing except it was a gray and white color mixture. On top of the heartless was a man with a shotgun, and a small mustache. On the nobody was a man with long pink hair and a giant pink scythe.

"Well, it seems this was easier than I thought," the first man said followed by a huge laugh.

"What did I tell you? Easy," the pink haired man chipped in, "It seems all we need now is to dispose of this waste"

Bryan was still frozen in fear at the sight before him; their she was in the hand of this giant heartless and it was his fault. If he had just let go she would be awake and fighting with him, what had he done? The heartless let out a crackling roar and swiped at Bryan sending him straight into the wall. Bryan hit the wall with tremendous force as he tried to snap out of his trance. The two beasts headed toward his direction, he quickly reacted this time and tightened his grip on his staff. The heartless ran forward while the man on top loaded his gun ready to fire, Bryan had to think fast. He swiftly slid underneath the heartless avoiding being hit then quickly jumped back up, aiming his staff.

"Blizzaga!" he screamed sending ice shards directly at the heartless.

As soon as the heartless regained his composure the man on top of it took aim at Bryan and fired.

"Perfect," Bryan thought as he casted another spell, "Reflectaga!"

Bryan was surrounded by a pillar of glass, which caused the man's bullet to be sent right back at him, harming his heartless. The man grew angry and red as he turned to his partner just sitting on his nobody.

"Are you going to help at any time at all?!" he asked furiously as the man stretched and yawned.

"Oh, but you were doing or so well," he snickered, "Fine. Charge my beautiful beast!"

Both the heartless and nobody charged towards him, the heartless dropping the unconscious Shriek on the floor. Bryan knew he would have to take them to a bigger area, but he also knew he would have to come back for her. Bryan closed his eyes and took a huge breath as he ran out the front door and jumped into the trees below him as did the creatures following him.

A huge battle

Bryan saw the ground quickly approaching, rapidly as he fell. The force of the fall was making it hard to raise his staff, but just before he reached the ground he raised it and casted a spell.

"WIND!" he screamed.

A barrier of air surrounding him, taking some of the impact of the fall, but Bryan still felt much of it. He struggled to catch his breath, but he when finally did he began running before the men and their creatures found him. He needed somewhere where he might have a slight chance of winning. He continued running as he heard the running of giant footsteps behind him, getting closer. He ran through an opening in the trees he noticed and found the perfect area to fight. The two creatures and their masters entered the area they had seen Bryan come through they searched, but found nothing.

"Come on out," Clayton said, "We promise we won't make your death anymore painful then it need be".

Bryan had climbed up a nearby tree and was watching down on his two targets. Bryan liked to think things through, but now was the time to act, not think. Then the words Master Yen Sid rang through his mind. It was now or never. He jumped out of the tree toward the middle of the two creatures and screamed.

"Light give me strength!" as he said that he was surrounded by a sphere of light which exploded, blinding the two creatures and Clayton and Marluxia. Bryan's clothes began glowing and the Dream Rod was replaced by the new Keyblade, which started firing light at both the creatures. Bryan landed and began sliding away from those two and held his keyblade behind him twirling it. This was amazing shoes that floated and a weapon that shot light this was going to be fun. Bryan smiled and began what seemed like a stare off with the four beings he had to fight. The heartless and nobody scratching their feet on the ground ready to charge, Clayton holding his gun ready to fire, and Marluxia readying his scythe. This seemed to go on forever until Clayton pulled the trigger on his gun which alerted his heartless to charge. To Bryan time seemed to be going at half speed, he glided away from the heartless and began firing ice and light at it. The heartless couldn't escape the barrage, Clayton took one last shot at Bryan, but Bryan simply jumped over it and fired three rapid shots at the heartless finishing it off. Clayton feel to the ground as his heartless faded and a giant heart floated off into space. That brought back memories to Bryan.

"That must be what happens to heartless now when they are defeated," he thought.

Then Bryan felt a surge of pain, he was so entranced by the heart he didn't see the nobody sneak up. It had clawed his entire back, while Marluxia picked him up with his scythe laughing.

"Well what do we have here?" he snickered, "Someone who thinks he can beat ME!"

Marluxia continued laughing until the nobody he was riding snatched Bryan into its mouth. Marluxia's laugh echoed throughout the forest as his creature swung Bryan side to side and slammed his body into the ground. Bryan felt every swing, every crash, and every bit of energy being put into the attacks against him, but he was waiting for the perfect moment to act. Then, the nobody jerked its head back, preparing to slam Bryan again, perfect.

"Firaga!" Bryan shouted, but instead of a medium fireball, out came a huge flaring sphere that hit the nobody and knocked Marluxia to the ground.

Bryan stood their floating above the ground and spinning his keyblade as he waited for what would happen next. Soon, Clayton and Marluxia both struggled, but eventually, got up and glared at him with hatred filled eyes. Clayton held out his whistle as Marluxia held out his scythe, luckily Bryan was prepared.

"Gather," he called out as the scythe and whistle both gathered around him and fell to his feet.

"God blast it!" Clayton cursed, "No matter we'll deal with you the old fashion way then."

"Right you a….a…are,' Marluxia stammered mechanically.

Bryan stared confused at what Marluxia had just done, but just then he jumped and retrieved his weapon and swung at Bryan. Bryan jumped out of the way, but not before Clayton had fired right where he had jumped. Bryan took the bullets and fell to the ground, the aura from his clothes vanishing along with his keyblade. So, their he laid holding his staff and bleeding all over his cloak, spacing out slowly. He had to fight… No, he needed to fight. He struggled onto his feet, wiping the blood from his mouth and held out his staff to cast a spell.

"Fi…re…" he struggled to say, but before the spell could form Marluxia slammed the blade of his scythe onto his throat causing him to fall straight to the ground. Clayton slowly walked over, as his partner held Bryan down, and put the end of his gun to Bryan's forehead.

"Any last words?" he asked cocking his gun, prepping it to fire.

Nothing came to Bryan's mind as he struggled to say anything. The only thoughts going through his mind were those of him and Shriek, how he felt bad for hurting her and never getting to tell her how he truly felt. Now it was too late for him, he would never find his other friends and he would never see home again, whether it be the abandoned castle or his house in Radiant gardens. Clayton put his finger to the trigger and prepared to pull it, when the three of them heard a mighty yell and out from the trees came Tarzan, who kicked Marluxia off of Bryan and threw his spear at Clayton's gun knocking it from his hands. Clayton stood awestruck then ran as fast as he could away from them. Tarzan helped Bryan get to his feet then gave him a dark green herb.

"Eat," Tarzan said, "Good. Health."

Bryan smelled it, ate it, and his wounds were healed and he felt replenished. Amazing things nature had inside of it if you're just willing to look. Suddenly, Bryan remembered Marluxia was still there. He pushed past Tarzan and looked for Marluxia hurriedly, but didn't see him.

"True *Sizzle sizzle* beauty *crackle crackle*," Bryan looked on the ground and saw Marluxia shooting sparks and then disappear in a puff of smoke. Who, or what, was that person? Tarzan and Bryan stood there wondering, then Tarzan introduced himself, then they both headed back to the tree house to help Shriek.

Onward with guilt

There she lay, silent and unconscious. Bryan hated himself, feeling that what had happened was all his fault while Tarzan tried to feed her the leaf to heal her. Bryan sat down, surrounded by the rubble, he promised to find her, but now he needed to promise to keep her safe. Tarzan finally got Shriek to swallow the herb and she slowly started coming to. She coughed and sat up as Tarzan helped her, Bryan just pulled is hood over his face and tried to hide. She scanned the room until she saw him in the corner, so she slowly crawled over to him. She slowly removed his hood and saw that his head was down and tears where starting to form. He wiped the tears away and started sobbing.

"I'm *sniff* so sorry for what I did *sniff*" he tried to say through his crying. She didn't know why he was sad, but she did know that now she was starting to cry. Shriek couldn't stand to see him like this. She rubbed up against him and tried to make him feel better. Bryan lifted his head and looked at her as she purred against him. He couldn't help but smile at her she was so adorable like an actual cat. He rubbed her hair and stood up with her. Tarzan came over to the two and handed Bryan a small chain.

"Friends. Hearts strong. This help."

Bryan nodded knowing that this was a keychain, but didn't know how to summon forth his keyblade at will. He must need to recharge his energy, so he waved goodbye to Tarzan and led Shriek to the gummi ship. Once, they had reached it the a beam shot down and lifted the two into the cockpit. Bryan turned the auto-pilot on and tried to phone back to Radiant gardens. All he got was static and no picture, strange he thought. He just sat down and looked out the window, watching the stars fly by at light speed. Shriek looked at her friend and noticed a look of distress on his face. She wanted to see that wonderful, heartwarming smile on his face. As she thought this she felt her cheeks get read and her heartbeat speed up. What was this feeling? So, she walked over and sat on the cushion next to him (there's a sofa in my gummi ship, deal with it) and slowly scooted towards him. Bryan saw her coming closer out of the corner of his eye, but he was already at the edge of the couch so he couldn't move any farther, as if he wanted to. She purred up against him again and rested her head on his lap as she yawned. Bryan smiled down at her and he too fell asleep. He hoped tomorrow maybe they would find Levantus since he already knew where Christian was. Soon, they would all be back together and he might actually express some of his emotions.

Heroes

Bryan awoke to the sight of Shriek looking out the window, pawing wildly at the glass. He was curious as to why and went to see for himself. He saw right outside, what looked like a world containing a massive coliseum. They looked at each other and nodded, it was unanimous. They were landing here. Bryan set the ship to land and started thinking to himself.

"A coliseum huh?" he thought, "Strength. Fighting. Seems like a good place, if any, for Levantus to be."

As he finished thinking, the gummi ship landed outside a pair of gates and Shriek ran out on to the new world. Bryan grabbed his staff, and hers, and headed out in a calm manner; chuckling at how excited Shriek seemed to be. Once he reached the gates, where Shriek was wildly scratching in hopes of getting in, he tapped her on the shoulder.

"You forget something?" he asked tossing Shriek her staff.

She blushed, picking up her staff, and gave him a hug with a nice smile. They turned to look at the huge gates, and decided to take a few steps forward. Bryan touched the door looking for a handle for some kind, when suddenly both his and Shriek's staff began glowing. The ground started shaking violently as the enormous gates swung open. Bryan and Shriek took a peek in and were awestruck. A walkway lined with torches, huge signs showing the names of former champions, and at the end of it all were two giant statues of warriors crossing their swords to show the entrance of the coliseum. Bryan proceeded forward with caution; he had been through enough to know that you never let your guard down. Shriek, on the other hand, bursted through running toward the front doors.

Bryan sighed to himself, "How am I supposed to keep up with that kind of free spirited energy? *sigh* it's hopeless."

He finally made it towards the stairs, where Shriek was patiently waiting wagging her tail and scratching her ears, and they entered. Inside were a couple of trophies lining the walls, a spiraling circle of some kind, and what looked like a half goat- half human hybrid hanging up a sign. Bryan decided since that was the only 'thing' around he might as well ask if it had seen Levantus.

"Umm… excuse me, but have," he started before he was interrupted by the goat man.

"Kid! Great for you to be back, you'll be glad to hear that they finally closed up that good for nothing Underdome. Now give ol' Phil a hand and open up that treasure chest for me, I lost the key."

Bryan stared, confused and decided, 'ok?' He looked around and saw Shriek pointing to the treasure chest in question. He walked over to it and wondered what he should do. He tried prying it open. Nothing. Hit it with his staff. Nothing. Magic. Nothing. So, finally he decided to tell 'Phil' he had failed.

"Ummm… I'm sorry, but I can't open it." Bryan said apologetically.

"What?!" he yelled turning around, "What about your key… Oh, sorry I thought you were someone else."

There was an awkward silence for a while and Phil decided to be the one to break it

"So who are you anyway?" he asked rather rudely.

"Well, my name is Bryan," Bryan answered, "I'm the great dream mage and this here is Shriek she is…"

Phil screamed and cowered against the wall before Bryan could finish, "Get that thing out of here! No one's making lamb chops out of me!"

"Please calm down. I swear we mean you no harm; we're just looking for a man named Levantus. Have you seen him?"

Phil took a deep breath and brushed himself off, "I don't keep track of names. If you want to find this guy you'll have to enter the games here."

Bryan looked around confused as Shriek walked up to him looking at Phil and licking her lips. Phil shuddered and took a step back.

"What are 'the games' exactly?" Bryan asked.

"The games *gulp* are an intense series of battles to determine who's the strongest in all of Greece! But, I can't just let anyone into this, so sorry."

"Please sir. We need to find our friend, how can we get in?" Bryan begged putting his hand together.

"*sigh*. Look you seem like a nice guy and your friend… Well you seem nice," Shriek growled at him as he kept talking, "But I'm fresh out of tournament invites and besides this isn't some preliminary, this is bad guys and heroes from all over the universe."

Shriek walked over and picked Phil by his tail sneering at him. He struggled to free himself as Shriek slowly showed her fangs.

"OK! OK! YOU CAN ENTER THE GAMES! AHHHH!" he screamed as Shriek dropped him back down to the floor, "but don't say I didn't warn you."

"Thank you and I apologize for my friend," he said winking at Shriek for a job well done.

"Whatever, but I've got two words of advice for you," he started, "Don't. Drop. Your. Guard."

Bryan and shriek snickered as they walked through the door into the coliseum, ready for anything…almost.

The Battle Ahead

Bryan looked around confused. For the "Biggest games in the universe" no one was there. It was completely empty, Shriek also noticed this. They heard a rattling noise and turned around quickly to see a metal gate opening. Out stepped a woman holding a chain, at the end of the chain was a teenage looking man with his face completely covered by a messy barrage of hair. The woman smiled as she pet the teen. The woman herself was semi-tall being with long blonde hair and a slim frame, she wore the most malicious smile Bryan had ever seen, but for some reason he couldn't look away. Shriek noticed this and proceeded to thump him on the head. As Bryan rubbed his head, Shriek noticed the other being with the woman. She didn't know why, but all she wanted to do was ripped his hair and gouge out his eyes.

"Well look Drakie. Fresh meat," she said laughing, and then becoming serious, "Pathetic".

Bryan became furious, but not his normal level furious, just slightly below it. As Bryan went to raise his staff, the hair face teen leaped forward barking and growling. Bryan flinched but luckily the women gripped the chain holding him back as he snarled. Shriek growled and too started running toward the dog person, making Bryan have to hold on to her by her shirt.

"It seems my dog doesn't like your cat," the women said.

"The feeling's mutual," replied Bryan.

Once they got both of the 'animals' to calm down, Bryan tried to speak.

"Okay. My name is Bryan and this is Shriek, so can I ask who you are."

The women stumbled back in shock, "Is this your first tournament or something, you're not supposed to make friends with the people you fight." She looked over Bryan once more, "But, you're cute, and I use that term loosely, so I'm Carol and this here is Drake. Now that that's over let's get things started."

As she finished saying that she whistled and pulled out a bow and arrow, letting go of Drake's chain. Bryan and Shriek got ready for the battle, then noticed Phil was in the stands watching them. They turned back to the task at hand as a whistle went off and the battle began. Drake started it off by leaping towards Shriek showing off that he possessed immensely sharp claws. Shriek rolled away and raised her staff up.

"Geeee!" she opened her eyes and was shocked at what she saw.

Her staff wasn't glowing and no one was coming to help. Phil called out from the seats.

"There's no outside help in the games, you and your partner's strength only!"

Well that was just great, she jumped forward and swung her staff hitting Drake to the ground. He shook his hair and pounced once again. Meanwhile, on the other side Bryan was struggling to make himself look like he could win.

"Blizzard! Ahh! Fire!" he screamed dodging arrows.

"Ha! Is that all you've got?" Carol mocked shooting arrow after arrow in rapid succession.

Bryan casted reflects, but the arrows broke through it before Bryan knew what hit him. Shriek saw her friend in danger and knew she needed to act quickly. She took her attention off of Drake and leapt towards Carol. She raised her staff, but before she could slam it Carol spun around and hit her with the steel back of the bow. Shriek fell to the ground with a metallic taste her in her mouth, as Drake pounced on top of her growling, raising his claw. Meanwhile Carol drew one last arrow as she aimed it right at Bryan's heart.

"Far too easy,' she scoffed.

Bryan struggled to open his eyes; he had to play his trump card. The only thing he could do, he hoped it counted as his own strength.

Carol drew back the arrow as Drake went for his final strike, and then Bryan put his plan into motion.

"LIGHT!" he screamed and just as before light scattered everywhere knocking both Carol and Drake backwards.

Bryan used his, now stronger, magic to heal Shriek and help her back up. After making sure she was okay they turned back to their challengers. Carol using her bow as a crutch to get back up and Drake with smoke coming from his face as he screamed.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" he screamed in pure agony.

"Is it the light?" Bryan asked himself. He turned to Shriek and nodded as they both headed back into battle.

Drake got back up and started summoning forth darkness to his body. Soon he was completely covered in darkness and had the look of a nightmarish beast. His hair covered face was now an elongated snout containing close to a hundred fangs, his hand had become menacing looking claws, and his feet were now like that of a werewolf. He turned towards them and howled, but there was still more.

"Now," Carol started saying, "It's time for you to see why they call me Carol."

As she finished that statement, she closed her eyes and began humming a dark and ominous tune. The skies darkened and the moon appeared in the sky as if day had suddenly changed to night. The dark clouds over head started feeding darkness into Drake's body, as he began howling and growling like the savage beast he was.

Bryan didn't know what to do for once. There was no way that even with the new clothes and keyblade he could beat these two. He felt like falling down on his knees, just like every time he wanted to give up, but something stopped him this time. He looked over and saw Shriek holding him up, even in times as dark as now she wouldn't give up without a fight. Now, neither would he, he needed a plan and one quickly before Drake absorbed too much darkness to handle, and then it came to him!

Drake was getting his fill of darkness, his feral instincts becoming more enhanced, his body becoming more powerful. He went to let out one last howl before the slaughter began, but as he began he was knocked down by a massive blow to the chest. He shook his head and looked and saw a sight worthy of ten times his anger. Bryan was standing holding both of the Shriek's staff and his keyblade, channeling all his new light through them and into Shriek. Shriek was glowing bright enough to challenge the sun and illuminated the whole stadium. Carol gasped and began singing louder and with more emotions, but as she did Bryan concentrated harder. Both darkness and light grew as the battle began once more. Drake plunged for Shriek's throat; missing Shriek pounced on his back and hung on for dear life. Drake bucked and threw his back, but couldn't get her off. He finally just grabbed her and tore her off his back. Big mistake. She clawed one hand and bit the other jumping off and landing right below his monstrous jaw. She dealt an upper cut that sent him flying, and then crashing into the ground. She cheered for herself, but Drake got up once again, seething with rage, anger, and literal flames in his eyes.

"FIRE!" he screamed and the shadows of the stadium became pillars of pitch black fire.

He stretched out his arms and two pillars came into his hands, in the shapes of javelins. He hurled both at Shriek, as she quickly jumped over one and slid under the other making her way towards the beast. Drake changed another pillar of fire into a chain and began whipping at Shriek. Shriek was agile enough to dodge it, but she was wearing down, she needed something. A plan of attack. A strategy. She only acted though, Bryan was the one for thinking she needed him. Drake roared and summoned all the pillars forward towards Shriek, as they began chasing her. Then it hit her, an idea! She barrel rolled past three of the pillars sliding around then under Drake. She jumped and twisted over him and before he knew what was happening he found himself tied in his own chains. This cat had bested him even with all the darkness he had, maybe he needed more than darkness, before he could think further on it him and Carol both fainted to show their defeat. Bryan fell to his knees as he had used the full extent of his powers. Shriek ran over to help him up and he rewarded her with a warm smile.

"Looks like we won huh?" Bryan joked.

They both started giggling until they noticed Drake and Carol heading their way. They both got serious and Shriek raised her staff to Drake's throat growling. Drake simply lowered the staff and touched the gem at the end; an aura encased him as he began glowing and fading away. He raised the hair out of his face and revealed his true face, to Shriek he looked a little like Bryan, except he had an unshaved face and huge fang like canines. Then he disappeared into Shriek's staff.

"Who… was that?" Bryan asked confused at why Drake reminded him so much of himself.

Carol smirked, "Don't know. Some man in a cloak gave me this vial and said to use it as I see fit. That was the one I decided was fit enough for the tournament, but it looks like I was wrong *sigh*"

She pulled the vial and opened the top; a stream of light came out and formed a person on the ground. It was another teenage boy, this one wearing an over coat, thermal pants and snow boots.

Carol pulled her face to her palm, "Not Luke again. Isn't there anyone useful in here? If you want you can have it, it's completely useless."

"Dude, five more minutes," the boy said, "*yawn* just keep quiet."

Bryan took the vial from Carol as she exited the stage. Bryan stared at the vial and then decided to open it, as he did light began to pour out of it and encased Shriek's staff. Both Shriek and him watched in amazement as pictures of different people appeared, and then were sucked into Shriek's staff's gem. Were these new summons? What did each one do? And why did they resemble Bryan so much? The two exited the tournament, feeling exhausted and wanting to just rest. Once they got back in the lobby they saw Phil standing there clapping.

"I've got two words for you. Best. Games. Ever."

"So who's next?" Bryan asked worried about the answer.

"No one. After that fight everyone else left to train some more. Probably scared of you two rookies."

"Hey who are you calling rookies!?" Bryan asked annoyed

"EEEE!" Shriek yelled as well.

"You two don't got what it takes to be real heroes."

Bryan held back Shriek and the two walked out annoyed at the goat man, for saying they weren't real heroes. Had he missed that entire fight?! Whatever, they'd be back for more games though, it was a good workout. They re-entered the gummi ship and sent out for the next world, soon drifting to sleep.

(Carol)

"What a useless piece of junk," Carol said annoyed at the results of the battle, "and now my bow's all jacked up. Grrr."

Just as she was about to enter her ship, to go loot another world, the strange man in black appeared from another dark portal. She pointed her arrow at him.

"Awe come on," he said sounding nervous, "I thought we were friends. Remember that little gift I gave you?"

"You mean that useless piece of junk I gave away?"

"What!? Oh, no. The boss won't be too pleased with that, not one bit."

"Who's this boss of yours anyway and why is he giving random people weapons?" she said pushing the arrow closer to his neck.

"*gulp* Trust me it's not random, only people who might kill or weaken those two you just fought get weapons from the boss," he explained pushing the arrow away and removing his hood.

He was a slightly aged teen with messy dark blonde hair and a pair of headphones around his neck.

"But he is a man of his word so here," he said reaching into his pockets, "Take it."

Carol caught the object, it was a small bag containing ten thousand munny, "Sweet, didn't even do the job and I get paid."

"Whoa! Wait! What!? Didn't get the job done give it ba…" before he could finish, Carol sweep kicked him and jumped into her ship and flew off.

"Pleasure doing business with you," she called out

The man sat there as his boss's voice started from the head phones. He knew he had to break the bad news.

(?)

"Hello… Ya… Nope she gave it to them apparently… Ouch not so loud you'll break my headphones… Break my neck... Sorry… Don't worry I'll get them in the next world… Bye," he says ending the call and looking at the feminine figure across from him, "I've got good help this time."

A New Town

Bryan yawned and stretched as he awoke to see that Shriek was still asleep. He smiled and slowly moved to check on why the ship had stopped moving. Directly ahead was a suburban looking world, full of shops, roads, and people. This seemed like as good a place as any to look for people. He activated the ships landing gear as it approached the new world and woke up Shriek. They both grabbed their staffs as they exited the gummi ship, one thing was bothering Bryan though. Why hadn't one of the orbs or keyblades gone to Shriek? Was she not worthy enough or something? He pushed that thought out of his mind as they both walked out of the ship and were encased in a flash. The two heroes covered their eyes and when they could see again saw that their clothes had changed completely. Bryan had lost his new magic clothes and original cloak and was now wearing a pair of black skinny jeans and a black shirt with some sort of band logo on it. Also, he noticed that he had a black hoodie draped over his shoulder as he looked at himself confused. Shriek looked over herself, but her outfit hadn't changed that much. She still had her jean shorts, which now had pockets sticking out from the bottoms, she also had her tank-top, but it was now an orange pink color. She then saw her staff glow and change into a necklace that she quickly put on and did a cute pose and smile towards Bryan, as if to ask "How do I look?" Bryan just blushed and said she looked *pause* nice. He saw his staff had also changed shape, into a strange looking device. The wooden staff had changed into two small thin rubber type ropes connected to his gem, which was now a small silver box. He looked around and saw a few people using this device in their ears, so he decided to see what it was. He put the ends of the ropes into his ears and pressed the middle button on the box, he was then immediately treated to the sound of music, beating, and addictive sounding music. He suddenly got the urge to just rock his head back and forth and he listened to the urge as he listened to the voices and instruments of the music. Shriek looked at him with complete confusion, not sure what he was doing and decided to check the area for food, Levantus, or Christian. Then she saw a man putting up signs and standing on a box announcing something.

"Come one come all," he was shouting to the people in the plaza, "to the sandlot and witness the glory that is the STRUGGLE TOURNAMENT!"

Everyone started walking toward the man cheering and pumping their fists in their air waiting to hear more. Shriek made her way, roughly, to the front of the crowd to get a better listening spot.

"And meet the newest struggle competitor, soon to be champion," he paused as the crowed waited in anticipation, swiftly the man pulled a rope dropping a giant poster down for all to see, "LEVANTUS!"

The crowd cheered and started chanting Levantus' name, then quickly made their way toward the sandlot while Shriek made her way toward Bryan, who was still listening to his new musical device. Bryan stood there rocking his head and semi standing/dancing, Shriek tried to point out the poster and the fight, but for once he was completely ignoring her. HER! She clenched her teeth, made a fist, and punched him directly in the temple. As he hit the ground, with his music still playing, she dragged him to where the crowd had gone thinking once again. Men.

Once they arrived at the sandlot they saw a crowd of what looked like hundreds or thousands of people all around a small arena where two people seemed to be fighting, but Shriek couldn't see over the huge crowd.

"Owww," Bryan said in pain, "Man my head is pounding like this drum beat, wait… no it's the bass solo. Now-now-now now-nee!"

Shriek clocked him out again not wanting to deal with him anymore at this point as she tried to get through the crowd. When she finally got herself to the edge of the arena, with Bryan being dragged behind her, she saw Levantus fighting with a blue foam bat against another boy. The boy swung at Levantus, but he blocked it and quickly hit with a counter attack knocking the boy out. Levantus set down his sword as a man lifted his arm up and announced his victory.

"And the new Struggle champion is Levantus!" he said as the crowd screamed and cheered his name.

Levantus had the biggest, and only, smile Shriek had ever seen him have at all. She started waving her arm to get his attention.

"LEVI!" she screamed.

Levantus looked around and saw her with Bryan, wearing ear buds, standing there waving at him. He jumped down and what he asked next scared Shriek

"Ummm... Have we met before?"

THE LONE WARRIOR

(Levantus)

"And the new Struggle champion is Levantus!" The announcer yelled out as confetti started falling from the sky while the audience roared in excitement to see the champion claim the trophy and championship belt. Levi turned towards the crowd and gave them a thumbs up with a cocky smile. How did he get here you ask? Well, it all started out one month ago where we see a young man of eighteen years old in a dark alleyway.

The teen groaned as he was coming back to the land of the living with a killer headache. "Ugh, what happened last night?" The young adult opened his sea blue eyes to see himself slumped on the side of a wall. Levi then thought, "Well this is a fine mess I've gotten myself into. I wonder where I am." He then tried to get up, but then fell back down onto the pavement. "Well it looks like I'm not going anywhere for a while." Levantus then noticed that there was a strange object near his right foot. He tried to reach for it before it disappeared in a flash of light and appeared in his right hand. Levi took a closer look at the object and found out that it was a sword. "What the? Where did this sword come from?"

All of a sudden, he heard a strange ethereal voice in his head, "OH wielder of the sword of destruction, rise up and meet the new challenges set before you." After the voice faded away from Levantus's mind, he was encased in a soft green light and felt better than before.

When Levi noticed that he felt different, he tried to get up again and was able to do so without any difficulty. "Well that was strange. Time to figure out where I am now." As Levantus began walking, his sword disappeared in a flash of light. Levantus looked down at his hand and said, "I guess that's better, I don't want people to think I'm a psycho." As Levantus kept walking, he noticed that three teenagers were walking towards a street. "Maybe they can tell me where I am." And with that thought set into his mind, Levantus raced after the three teens.

After chasing those three teens for gods knows how long, Levi finally caught up to them, only to see that they were being picked on by a small group of thugs. The first one was a bulky man with dark skin and brown hair, wearing a red tank top, dark black saggy sweatpants, a silver chain with a lightning symbol around his neck, and white tennis shoes. The second thug was a small girl with grey shoulder length hair, red eyes, and light tan skin, wearing a blue tank top, gray cargo pants, and blue-ish gray tennis shoes. The third thug was a slightly smaller individual, whose face was hidden under a bizarre witch's hat, wearing a small blue coat, green pants, and small brown shoes. The final thug that was apparently the leader of the group was a tall white male with blonde hair and blue eyes; he was wearing a black beanie, a gray trench coat without the sleeves, a blue undershirt, grey pants, and white tennis shoes. He was holding out what looked like a foam sword towards one of the males of the teens that Levi was following.

The leader of the gang said, "What are you losers doing on our turf. Did you not get a good enough beating last time?"

The bulky man chirped in saying, "Yeah, you guys got whooped y'know."

Then one of the guys of the group that Levi was following said, "Can you just lay off Seifer, we're just passing through."

The leader of the thugs now known as Seifer smirked and said, "Then you'll have to pay the toll. You have to fight me." He then tossed one of the guys a foam sword and proceeded to get into his fighting stance.

Unfortunately, the girl caught the sword and barely got into a fighting stance as the leader of the thugs proceeded to charge forwards, but before he could launch an attack, Levantus intercepted the strike and blocked it with his sword. Everyone was so surprised by the arrival of Levantus that it gave him a chance to attack. Levantus brought the butt of his sword into the guy's stomach, punched him in the face when he crouched down in pain, grabbed his trench coat, began to spin in a circle, and threw him on the ground! "You shouldn't pick on those weaker than you AND I don't see your name anywhere, so this isn't 'your' turf" he said with a smirk.

Seifer's followers came to cover him and the tan-ish man spoke as Seifer struggled to get up. "Seifer's not feeling to hot right now, y'know!"

Seifer got up grunting, glared straight at Levantus, and said with a small amount of difficulty, "This doesn't mean anything! We'll settle this at the struggle tournament! Come on guys." As he said that him and his followers left. Except, the smaller one turned around and looked at Levantus one last time before leaving with the rest.

After Seifer's gang left the sandlot, the group that Levantus had followed walked up to him and the girl he had just saved said, "Thank you for helping us. Seifer is a major jerk."

Levantus smiled at the girl and said, "It's no problem at all, but I do have three questions. Who are you three, where am I, and what is a struggle tournament?"

The group introduced themselves as Hayner, Pence, and Olette, told Levantus that he was in Twilight Town and that the Struggle tournament was basically a test of strength with everyone who lives here. "Alright then. Thank you three for answering my questions. Now, where is the closest hotel? It looks like I'm going to be staying here for a while."

Pence quickly replied with, "Wait, we can't let you stay in a hotel. You look like you don't have very much munny on you." For that, he received a glare from Levantus before it turned into one of confusion.

Levantus lightened his glare and asked, "What the hell is munny?"

Hayner then said, "Munny is the currency of our world. You can usually earn it by doing odd-jobs around the town."

Levantus responded with, "Alright then, I'll earn some munny so I can actually be able to live in this town."

As Levantus started to walk away, Olette called out, "Wait, you could stay at one of our houses for the night."

Levantus turned around in surprise and asked, "Are you sure? I don't want to impose."

Hayner just waved him off and said, "Don't worry about it. You need a place to stay, so we'll give you one."

Levantus just smiled at the three teens and said, "Alright then. Now, do you know where I can practice my sword techniques, I'm feeling a bit rusty."

Pence responded with, "You could practice in the woods by the old mansion."

Levantus replied with, "That will be perfect place to train. Can you please show me the way?" The teens nodded as they began to leave the sandlot with Levantus following close behind. After a few minutes of walking, the group of four arrived at a huge crack in what looked like the city wall. Levantus looked at it strangely before turning towards Hayner and asking, "Uh, isn't the mayor or anyone in this town concerned about this at all?"

Hayner turned towards Levantus and said, "Not really. Everyone is more concerned about other things than a hole in a wall."

Levantus gave him a look of understanding before turning towards the strange hole again. He felt something strange coming out from the hole and slowly began to walk towards it. The other three were surprised by Levi's actions and tried to follow him, but when Levi went through the hole in the wall, a barrier of light began to shine right before Olette, Hayner, and Pence could go through. Levantus quickly looked behind him to see the barrier activate signifying that he was now trapped within the small, dark forest outside of the town. Levantus cursed under his breath and looked forward, "Crap. Well, it looks like I have only one option left." Levantus then proceeded to walk forward through the small, dark, eerie forest. After what felt like hour when in reality had been only two minutes, Levantus finally made it out of the forest and into a clearing where he saw a large mansion. "Whoa, what's a place like this doing out in the middle of a forest?" Levantus asked nobody in particular.

Suddenly, Levantus suddenly grasped his head in pain as something clouded his vision. When Levantus opened his eyes again, he was looking at an ancient, decrepit castle. He saw that he was standing in front of it with another person who was wielding a strange shield. As they were about to enter the castle, another flash of light appeared and blinded Levantus again. When Levi could finally see again, he was back in front of the mansion again. "Strange, it felt like I knew that person, yet I've never met him." Levantus then turned towards the old mansion with a strange look on his face as he began to walk forward. As soon as he was about to touch the gate, he was surrounded by five strange black creatures.

Said creatures were humanoid in shape with purple bodies, helmets made of silver adorned with a curl at the end, big yellow eyes, long sharp red claw at the end of each hand, and had a strange symbol in the middle of their chests. Levantus quickly got into defensive stance as he summoned his sword in a flash of bright light. As he did this one of the creatures lunged forward, ready to strike, as Levantus parried the blow to his left. He then stepped to his right, brought his sword up, and thrusted it through the strange creature's head. The black creature let out a petrifying scream as it began to struggle to get free from the blade before it began to go limp and slowly dissipated into darkness and a crystal heart rose into the air. After the strange creature disappeared into darkness, Levi prepared his sword in case of another attack. This time however, two of the creatures charged forward, ready to kill. Levi blocked one of the strikes that were aimed for his chest, but he couldn't block the one going for his leg. Levantus cringed in pain as crimson life-sustaining liquid freely flowed down his left leg and as the last two strange creatures were coming his way. First one was aiming for Levi's head, which he ducked under, and the other was aiming for his chest, where Levantus performed a vertical slash that cleanly sliced the creature in two.

Levi quickly got up and turned to face the creatures of darkness as they began to circle around him. The one directly in front of Levantus charged forward ready to slice-and-dice its opponent, except for the fact that Levantus blocked its entire claw strikes and slashed at its chest before stabbing his sword through it. As the creature began to fade back into darkness, Levantus looked at his sword in question and thought, "What the hell? How am I this good with a sword?" He didn't get to finish his questions when one of the creatures slashed at his back, causing him to bleed slightly. Levi quickly got into defensive stance as the last two creatures charged towards him.

Levantus quickly blocked both strikes and was about to attack when the creatures brought their claws up and defended themselves from the eminent strike. Levi cursed as he switched back to being on the defensive, "Crap, they're getting smarter. Looks like I'm gonna have to change tactics." When the creatures charged forward again, Levantus side-stepped the creature on the left and proceed to slash through it as if it were butter. The last creature turned around abruptly to slash at Levi's leg and make him unbalanced. Sadly, it worked as Levantus fell onto his butt while cringing in pain. The creature then jumped up into the air ready to strike the final blow, however, Levantus was ready for the attack and thrust his sword up, and impaling the creature through the symbol on its chest as it came down. The creature flailed for a small amount of time before it went limp and disappeared into the realm of darkness. Levantus got up slowly as pain surged throughout his body and blood spilled out of his wounds. "Crap that could've gone better." He then looked towards the mansion and thought, "Why did I feel like that I needed to go inside of there? Is there something important there?" As Levantus was questioning himself, he barely noticed a small treasure chest materialize in front of him. Curious of what was inside the chest, Levantus tapped his sword on it three times and it popped open.

Levantus looked into the chest to see three potions and an elixir were inside the chest. He quickly stuffed the items into his jacket pockets as he held the last potion in his hand. "Just what the doctor ordered." Levi then put the potion up to his lips and chugged the entire glass in one go. After he was finished, he noticed that all of the cuts in his clothes and lacerations he received were slowly closing up while the blood that was seeping out of his wounds was slowly evaporating. "Sweet, it's like that fight didn't even happen. Now it's time to finally see what's inside this mansion." Levantus then proceed to walk into the mansion. When Levi opened the two doors, he found that the main room was covered in broken glass, paintings were torn and barely hanging from the walls and a glass chandelier was on the floor in a million pieces.

Levi sighed as he said, "Where's the cleaning lady when you need her?" He walked forward and said, "Well, I might as well take a look around the place." He looked around the room to see a door to his left, a door that lead out into what looks like a backyard, a staircase that leads into two directions, and a door on the right. "I guess I'll try door number one." Levantus did so and there was absolutely nothing it the room, except for some painting supplies. He then tried the door across from the first one and got the same result, except for the fact that it was a tool shed. Levi then opted to go upstairs. Once he went upstairs, he went towards the door on the left and appeared inside a completely white room with some pictures of a young teen, what looked like a dog, and a duck. "Whoa, I think I stumbled into somebody's personal art studio." Levantus quickly took a look around the room to hopefully find something of interest but found nothing. He then looked out the window at the forest to see a woman wearing a black cloak with long horns, coming towards the mansion while holding a strange demonic staff.

The cloaked woman in question raised her staff and a beam of dark green energy blasted towards the doors. The entire mansion shook as the blast radiated throughout the area. Smoke quickly filled out the main room of the house as Levantus tried to reclaim his balance. After Levi reclaimed his bearings, he took a quick glance outside to see that the woman was walking into the mansion. Levantus then summoned his sword as he ran out of the room to see the woman summoning more creatures of the darkness. "Come forth heartless, search for the one who destroyed your brethren!" The creatures of darkness, now known as Heartless, quickly began to spread throughout the mansion as the cloaked woman disappeared in what looked like a black and green fire. Levi quickly rushed towards the stairs to see multiple Heartless running around the house while others were just surveying the area.

Levantus gripped his sword tightly before yelling out, "Hey Heartless!" All of the Heartless looked towards Levantus as he said, "COME GET SOME!"

Both Levantus and the creatures of darkness charged towards each other. Levantus leaped over the incoming Heartless and landed right in the middle of the crowd before performing a backhanded spin-attack, which gave him a bit of breathing room while destroying a good amount of his enemies. Levi put his sword back to its normal position, before going to beat the living hell out of the animated darkness. Levantus had to constantly slash, block, duck, and dodge as the Heartless kept trying to kill the young sword wielder and before he could put a major dent in the Heartless army, but he did get a few scratches every once-and-awhile. After five minutes of constant fighting, all of the Heartless that were in the mansion were defeated. Levi quickly gathered all of the orbs that the creatures dropped and looked at the yellow and blue orbs with curiosity. "What the heck? Is this supposed to be munny?" Levi just shrugged as he collected the rest of it and put it in his pockets. Then he looked at the front doors to the mansion and whistled in amazement. The doors were completely blown off their hinges and the archway was covered in burn marks. "I guess I better fix this up a bit. I don't want the person who lives here to do it themselves." Levantus then proceed to look for the missing doors while going to the rooms for paint and tools.

After a few hours of work later, the door into the main room looked completely brand new. Levi swept the sweat off his brow, looked at his handiwork and said, "There, all done. Hopefully the person who lives here doesn't notice."

Levantus looked up towards the staircase and thought, "Well, time to see what's in that other door." Levantus then walked up the stairs to the final door on the second floor and found out that it was a library. Levantus looked at all of the literature that was displayed on the shelves and saw a book that peaked his interest. He reached for it and read the title, "Study of the Heartless by Ansem the Wise." Levantus figured that he would need this book later so he put it in one of his inner pockets and continued to look at all of the books. He then looked outside to see that it was getting late. "Whoa, I better get outta here. I bet that Hayner, Pence, and Olette are worried about me." Levantus then began to walk out of the mansion and into the forest, but just then he heard a low growl. Levantus froze for a moment before the growl went away and he continued towards the entrance to the forest. When Levantus came back to the barrier, it went away so that he could walk out.

When Levi did walk out of the forest, he was immediately confronted by, would you look at that, Hayner, Pence, and Olette. They began to bombard Levi with questions until he put up his hands in defense and said, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on for a second. One question at a time please."

They did just that and Levi answered them all until he got to the last question which confused him greatly. "What's sea-salt ice cream?"

They quickly explained what sea-salt ice cream was and Levi said, "Alright, let's go to the clock tower."

The three younger teens nodded and they walked towards the tower. When they finally reached the top, Levi looked out in the distance and said, "Wow, this is an amazing view." He turned to his right where Olette was handing him some ice cream and graciously took his ice cream and said, "Thank you."

Olette waved him off and said, "OH, it's no problem. We do this with all of our friends."

Levantus smiled as he took a small bite out of his ice cream. He pondered the taste for a few moments before saying, "It's salty, but sweet." He then looked towards his right to see everyone was enjoying their ice cream and continued to eat his ice cream while staring at the sun. "So, what's the plan for tomorrow?"

Hayner replied with, "I don't know, probably just training for the struggle tournament, doing odd-jobs, hanging out. The usual."

Levantus looked towards him and said, "Sounds like fun. I'll probably just do the same." And the same he did. Over the course of the next week, Levantus basically went to train in the forest, scope out the mansion to see if anything of value was there for his knowledge to expand, kill some Heartless that the strange cloaked woman kept summoning, and then go eat ice cream with Hayner, Pence, and Olette. The Heartless that Levantus was fighting were getting a lot easier to handle each time he went back to the mansion since he knew which attack each Heartless could do. Levantus read some part of the book that he had found in the library and found out that they were actually research notes compiled into a small book. Nothing strange happened at all for Levantus during the week, except for whenever he was leaving the forest area, he heard a low growl coming from the bushes and whenever Levi would check bushes, there was nothing there. So all-in-all, it was pretty normal for him, until the day after the first week.

As Levantus was walking from Olette's house, he had been staying at his friend's homes over the course of the week; he heard a high-pitched scream in the air. Levantus, being the hero that he was, he summoned his sword and sprinted towards where he heard the scream coming from. When he arrived on the scene, he saw a group of Heartless surrounding somebody he couldn't recognize. The Heartless were too far away and by the time he would get there, the girl would probably turn into one. Something suddenly clicked into Levi's mind as he got into a throwing position.

Then he yelled, "HEY HEARTLESS!" All the creatures of darkness turned towards Levantus as he said, "SUCK IT!" Then, with all his might, he threw his sword as if it were a boomerang towards the Heartless. The sword went flying and slashed through five of the creatures before returning to Levantus's hand and he threw it again. This time, he took out three before it returned to his hand, then he threw it again and got two more, then threw it again and got four more, and when his sword returned to his hands for the fourth time, he shouted as he flung his sword at his enemies one more time and it took out the rest of the Heartless before his sword reappeared in his hand. After his confirmation of all of the Heartless being destroyed, he rushed over towards the person whom the Heartless were attacking and what he found surprised him greatly.

The person, who he had just saved from the Heartless, was a girl around the same age as him, probably around seventeen or eighteen, with shoulder length snow-white hair, and pale white porcelain skin, wearing a lime-green t-shirt, dark-blue jeans, and white tennis shoes, but that's not what freaked Levantus out. What freaked him out was the fact that she had the ears and tail of a wolf. Levantus quickly shook off his stupor when the girl in front of him started to wake up. Levi felt captivated when he noticed that the girl's eyes were a shining crimson and he began to developed a small blush across his cheeks. Levantus knelt down slowly so that he wouldn't freak her out, to see if she was injured anywhere. When the girl sat up, she quickly looked around hastily before setting her eyes on Levantus. She stared at him curiously for a few seconds.

"Hey, are you alright?" Levantus asked

The girl in question just nodded slowly as Levantus looked at her with great intensity. Levi sighed in relief and said, "Whew, that's good." He then adorned a serious tone and said, "We better get out of here, the Heartless will be back soon and they want revenge." The girl nodded furiously as she took Levantus's outstretched hand and ran with him. Not long after, pools of darkness began to appear around Levantus and the girl as they began sprinting to anywhere except for where they were now.

As the two were running, smaller Heartless were beginning to come out of the portals and began to chasing Levantus and the mysterious girl towards the Sandlot. When Levi and the girl made it into the sandlot, barriers made out of light were quickly constructed as heartless began to pour in from all of the entrances, while Levantus brandished his sword in preparation. He then turned towards the girl and asked, "I suppose you don't have a weapon at your disposal, do you?" The girl nodded as she held out her left hand and in a flash of light, a large scythe appeared.

The way the scythe look surprised Levi greatly. It had a blade at each end of the handle, the blades looked like an angel's wings with a halo over each wing, and then entire scythe was completely white, as if were made out of the purest of light in existence. She then gave a small glance towards Levantus and said, "I do. You ready with that sword of yours?"

To Levantus her voice was one of pure beauty and he replied with cocky grin as he said, "Hell yeah. Let's take them down!"

They both got into their battle stance as the large army of Heartless was coming through then barrier. Levantus and the unknown girl charged forwards as they sliced-and-diced through the sheer multitude of Heartless that had been summoned through all of the dark portals. As Levantus kept on slashing through all of the weaker Heartless, the unknown girl personally took on all of the larger ones without any difficulties whatsoever while both of them were collecting all the munny along the way. As each Heartless was slain, another had taken its place and were stronger then the last. Levantus was starting to get tired of fighting after twenty-five minutes while the girl wasn't in any better condition.

Levantus quickly said, "This isn't going very well, the Heartless just keep coming."

The girl said, "I know, but we aren't going to give up now are we?"

Levantus gained a smirk and said, "Heck no, we fight until the end."

The girl smiled and said, "I like your style, and your right. So let's bring this fight to our advantage." Both of them meet back in the middle, back-to-back, as the Heartless began to crowd around them in complete hoards. Levantus then grabbed the hand of the surprised white-haired girl and began to spin her around. She then asked Levantus, "What the hell are you doing?"

Levantus smirked and said, "Just shut up and hold your scythe out." The girl gave Levantus a questioning stare before holding out her scythe as the Heartless, stupidly leapt for the two enemies of the darkness, only to be sliced-and-diced through a whirlwind of light and blades. Levi started moving his feet towards the Heartless as the range of the attack began to grow as they took out large amounts of Heartless. After a few minutes of the attack, Levantus looked up towards the girl and said," You ready?"

The girl in question just smiled and said, "Ready."

Levantus just smiled as he flung the girl away from him and said, "BUZZSAW!"

With that said he summoned his sword and proceeded to attack the remaining Heartless that had yet to be destroyed. After the mystery girl recovered from being spun around for a while, she quickly went back to slashing through the last amount of Heartless that was left like Levantus. After five more minutes of fighting, all of the Heartless have been defeated and the sandlot was vacant of any of the living darkness. After confirming all of the Heartless were defeated, both Levantus and the girl collapsed in the middle of the sandlot as they tried to regain their breaths.

After a few minutes, the girl looked towards Levantus and said, "So...what now?"

Levantus immediately sat up and said with a scowl on his face, "I just saved your ass, we killed a bunch of Heartless for half an hour, and you first question is 'so...what now?'" The girl adorned an angry face with a small blush and was about to retort when Levantus's demeanor changed completely and he busted out laughing while grabbing his sides.

The girl then stared at Levantus coldly and asked, "Why the hell are you laughing?!"

Levantus stopped to regain his breath as he said, "OH man. You should've seen the look on your face. Priceless!" He then noticed the blank stare that the girl was giving him and asked, "Wait, you thought I was serious?"

The girl punched Levantus's arm and said, "Yes I thought you were serious! I'm the type of person who takes people seriously."

Levantus raised his hands in defense and said, "Alright, alright, I get the picture. Come on, let's get out of here."

Levantus was about to get up when he noticed that there was a lot of blood running down his legs. He cursed as pain roared through his body like a wild stampeding bull while he tried to stand. "Crap, why didn't I notice this sooner?" He then reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out two potions. He handed one to the girl while he chugged his down in one fell swoop. She looked at it curiously before Levi said, "Drink it and it will make you feel better." She just shrugged her shoulders and drank the entire potion.

Both of the wounds that Levantus and the white-haired girl had sustained slowly began to heal as the potions took effect. After a few minutes, both Levantus and the girl were fully healed and were able to stand up without any pain surging through them. As the two started getting up, Levi said, "Now let's get outta here."

But before the two individuals could leave, a voice said, "You two aren't able to leave just yet."

All of a sudden, green flames erupted behind them as they quickly summoned their weapons, prepared to fight this new enemy. When the flames finally died down, Levantus saw the cloaked woman from the mansion when she summoned up the Heartless. Then the woman sent an icy glare to the protectors of light.

"You two have been thorns in my side for a while now, and I intend to remove you." She stated taking a closer look towards the girl and smiled, "Well, well, well, it sure has been awhile hasn't it, Kierhs."

The white-haired girl now known as Kierhs growled before saying, "Go to hell you horned cloaked bitch!"

The now newly dubbed horned cloaked bitch simply scoffed at the remark and said, "Now, now. It that any way to treat an old acquaintance?"

Kierhs growled again before saying, "Like you would be anything close to that."

Levantus turned towards Kierhs before asking, "Wait a minute, you know who this ugly hag is?"

Kierhs turned towards Levantus and said, "Yeah, I've had a couple of run-ins with Mrs. Troll and each time we fought, I barely won. Her name is Maleficent, the self-proclaimed 'mistress of all evil.'"

The horn cloaked bitch, now known as Maleficent, sent an icy glare towards the two and said, "It's nice to know that you remember me after so long. Now then, why don't we-" She was then interrupted as she saw Levi's sword fly through the air, aimed towards her face. Maleficent quickly brought up her staff to block the sword, but she failed to notice that Levantus was charging towards her so when she successfully blocked the sword, she failed to block Levantus's fist, which brutally connected to her face and sent her flying back a couple feet. Levantus smirked as his sword reappeared in his hand as he got into his offensive stance and waited for the evil sorceress to get up.

Maleficent began to rise slowly as her glare turned even colder than before as she said, "You insolent children! I'll make you two pay dearly for that." She then began casting a spell which created a rising platform.

Kierhs ran towards Levi and said, "Well she's pissed."

Levantus chuckled slightly and said, "Yeah, but it's not like we can't handle her, especially with me helping you."

Kierhs smiled and said, "Yeah, plus I haven't had much fun in a while, so let's do this." Levi nodded as they turned their attention towards Maleficent who was now floating on a rock.

Before Levi and Kierhs could move, Maleficent slammed the butt of her staff down on the ground and said, "Heartless, destroy these protectors of light!" All of a sudden, two large Heartless appeared next to the giant floating rock however, these type of Heartless were different from the ones that Levi and Kierhs had just fought. These Heartless were purple, wearing blue armor and wielding large shields with a demonic dog's face on it that looked extremely hungry. The two Heartless lunged towards their new prey as Levantus and Kierhs began to sprint straight towards Maleficent, hoping to end the battle quickly, but before the two could reach Maleficent, the two Heartless got in the way and fired waves of dark energy towards the two warriors.

Levantus saw the dark energy waves coming towards them and he quickly deflected to one that was aimed for him straight back towards the Heartless who just blocked the attack with its shield. Levantus then ran towards his new target and began to slash at his opponent, but said opponent kept blocking each strike with its shield while trying to get its shield to take a bite out of Levantus. As Levantus kept attacking the shield, he notice it starting to growl before it tried to take his arm off. Levantus quickly stumbled back as to avoid losing a limb from the man-eating shield. When Levantus was a safe distance away, the Heartless fired another wave of dark energy at Levantus before he could recover and it exploded, sending Levantus skidding across the ground for a few seconds before he came to a stop a few feet away. Levantus began to get up shakingly as he noticed the Heartless slowly stalk towards him with the face on the shield biting the air viciously.

As the large Heartless was slowly stalking towards the rising hero, Levantus was thinking, "OH crap, what do I do? I'm practically stuck in between a rock and a hard place. Come on, what could... wait, THAT'S IT!" He readied his sword as he charged towards the Heartless. The Heartless then began to charge forward before it tried to knock Levantus back with its shield; however, Levantus had different plans. As the Heartless tried to swing it's shield out in front of him, Levantus front-flipped over the Heartless and proceed to slash at the Heartless' back before finally scoring the final blow by stabbing his sword through the Heartless' back before forcefully raising it up to slice through its head. The Heartless then let out a horrifying scream before it faded back into the darkness from whence it came. After his small fight, he looked over towards where Kierhs was and saw that she had just killed the Heartless as it let out the horrifying scream. As the Heartless faded back into darkness, Kierhs looked towards Levantus as they nodded and began to attack Maleficent. The two charged towards her as she was finishing her spell.

Right when Levantus was about to jump onto Maleficent's floating platform, Maleficent chanted, "METEORS OF HEAVEN! UNLEASH THY FURY!"

All of a sudden, a giant portal opened behind Maleficent as it began blasting giant flaming blue meteors towards Levantus and Kierhs. Levantus was in the air when he barely had enough time to register the attack and put his sword out in front of him so he could defend himself from the giant molten rock from space. The meteor crashed into Levantus and carried him until when he was ten feet away from Maleficent when the meteor exploded and sent Levi to the ground.

Levantus fell to the ground with a heavy thud as Kierhs kept moving forward towards Maleficent while meteors kept coming through the portal. Kierhs yelled at Maleficent as she tried to jump onto the floating platform, "Stay still bitch!"

Maleficent glared towards the wolf-human hybrid and said, "I will do no such thing you abomination! Now," All of a sudden, a vortex opened above Maleficent as she pointed her staff, which was glowing with dark purple energy, towards Kierhs and lightning started to rain down "taste your defeat!". Kierhs had to begin dodging frantically if she didn't want to be electrocuted and be able to hurt Maleficent. After about five minutes of dodging, Maleficent finally stopped casting the lightning spell as she had to recharge her magic. Kierhs took advantage of this and began to attack the rock the Maleficent was floating on to give her a better chance.

While Kierhs was attacking the rock, Levantus groaned as he began to rise off of the ground feeling incredibly sore from the explosion when he looked over towards where Maleficent and Kierhs were and saw that Kierhs was attacking the floating rock. He was about to question why she was doing then before he saw the rock fall to the ground to give Kierhs more access to beat the shit out of Maleficent. Levantus then thought, "I better get there quickly so I can help out, but first." Levantus then pulled out an Ether that he somehow managed to get when he and Kierhs were fighting the giant group of Heartless. He then ate it quickly before slowly rising to his feet. He then looked towards where Maleficent was as she was about to slap Kierhs with her staff, he yelled out, "Hey old hag!"

Maleficent the looked towards Levantus as she managed to push Kierhs away as he said, "GO BURN IN HELL!" He then rushed forward with some newfound agility and began his assault on Maleficent. As Levantus kept slashing at the horn cloaked bitch, Kierhs was catching her breath before she rushed forward and began her onslaught of attack towards Maleficent's unprotected back. After being attacked for about five minutes straight without any recovery time, Maleficent finally had enough and sent out a pulse of dark magic which sent the two warriors of light flying in opposite directions.

Maleficent began to catch her breath before she said, "You two really are some pests, but in due time, all pests will be eliminated." She then summoned a dark corridor behind her as she said, "You two may have won today, but I will make sure that you will suffer the next time we meet." She then turned around and walked through the dark corridor before it faded away into nothingness.

Levantus slowly rose up off of his ass before he said, "Damnit, we almost had her."

Kierhs sighed as she slowly stood onto her feet and said, "I know, but there's no point in getting angry over something that's done and done." She then dismissed her scythe as it disappeared in a flash of light.

Levantus wanted to argue, but sighed in defeat when he couldn't find one and said, "Yeah, you're right." He then looked towards the clock tower and asked, "Hey Kierhs, would you like to get some ice cream at the clock tower?"

Kierhs turned towards Levantus while giving him a strange look before asking, "Are you trying to ask me out on a date?"

Levantus blushed slightly before saying, "No-no, I meant as friends."

Kierhs gave Levantus a disbelieving look before cracking a smile and said, "Alright then, but you're buying." She then began to sprint towards the clock tower before Levantus could respond. Levantus just chuckled at his new friend's antics and began to chase her after dismissing his sword. After a few short minutes of running and actually getting the ice cream, Levantus finally made it to the clock tower to see Kierhs sitting down calmly on the edge looking towards the setting sun. After a few seconds, Kierhs turned towards Levantus and said with a small smile, "Took you long enough."

Levantus chuckled before saying, "Well I did have to go get the ice cream."

Kierhs responded with, "True." She then turned towards the sun again and said, "The sky sure is beautiful."

Levantus then sat down next to her and said, "It sure is, especially when you're with others who appreciate it." He handed Kierhs her ice cream and said, "Here, try some."

Kierhs looked at the frozen treat with anticipation as she tentatively grabbed it and gave it a small lick. After a few seconds of contemplating the taste, she said, "It's salty, yet sweet." She turned towards Levantus when he chuckled and asked, "What?"

Levantus stopped chuckling as he turned towards Kierhs and said, "Well it is sea-salt ice cream." He then turned towards the sunset again before taking a small bite out of his ice cream. The two sat in silence as they continued to eat their ice cream while watching the sunset. After a few minutes, Levantus turned towards Kierhs and said, "Hey Kierhs."

Kierhs turned towards Levantus and said, "Yeah Levi, what is it?"

Levi then asked, albeit with a small amount of difficulty, "Do you have anywhere to stay?"

Kierhs looked down at the ground glumly before saying, "No, I don't."

Levantus then said, "Well then, would you like to come with me?"

Kierhs quickly looked Levantus and said, "Really?!"

Levi smiled and said, "Sure why not." Before Levi could register what happened, Kierhs leapt onto Levi wagging her tail while saying 'thank you' over and over again. Levantus put a hand on her back as he slowly rose from the ground as he said, "Alright then, we better get going so we can actually get some sleep." Kierhs nodded as they both began descend the clock tower and headed to Olette's house for the night.

The rest of the month flew by quickly for the two protectors of light, mainly because nothing important happened, except for the fact that Levantus was training for the struggle tournament. Speaking of which, the day of the struggle tournament had finally arrived as Levantus was anxiously waiting for his match to begin. The way this tournament was going down was that there were four competitors going head to head as they try to steal their opponent's foam balls to gain the max number of points before the timer ran out. The person with the higher amount of points by the end of the round would be the winner and move on into the next round. If you were the winner of both rounds, you would have the option to face last year's champion for the championship belt along with a one of a kind trophy and cash prize.

Levantus turned towards the others that were going to compete today and saw that Hayner, Seifer and the smallest member of Seifer's group, who was later known as Vivi, were going to be fighting today in the tournament along with or against Levantus. After a few minutes, a large chubby man came onto the stage and said, "Welcome everyone to this year's annual struggle tournament! This year, we have an amazing line-up for you all." He then pointed towards Hayner and said, "Over here, we have a well-known town-favorite, Hayner!" The crowd cheered as the announcer continued," Next to Hayner we have the local baddie, give it up for Seifer!" The crowd then erupted into booing as Seifer just crossed his arms in displeasure. The announcer sweat dropped before saying, "Okay then, anyways, next to Seifer we have the smallest resident in Twilight town, give it up for Vivi!" The crowd then erupted into cheers again as the announcer pointed towards Levantus and said, "And now for the final combatant. He's a man that appeared from nowhere, he's full of mystery, and all he has to his name is his sword and awesome clothes; let's hear a big round of applause for Levantus!" The crowd then roared in applause as they heard that a completely new combatant would be competing this year.

Seifer smirked as he was scooping out his competition before thinking, "This will be the easiest year ever."

Levantus looked towards Seifer to see him smirking before saying, "I bet he thinks that he's gonna win, like that could ever happen. I'm going to enjoy knocking the smirk right off of his face."

The announcer interrupted Levantus's train of thought when he said, "Alrighty folks, let's get ready for round one! The first matchup will be Levantus vs. Seifer!"

Levantus smirked as he thought, "Called it."

As Hayner and Vivi began to walk off the stage, Levantus and Seifer were each handed a foam sword to use during the match. The announcer then raised his hand and said, "Now then, let the first match begin!" He quickly threw his hand down and jumped out of the way as Seifer and Levantus jumped backwards so that they wouldn't hurt the announcer.

Seifer stared at Levi intensely before saying, "This is going to be payback for what happened earlier this month." He then charged forward ready to knock Levantus out. Levantus just smirked towards his opponent as he rushed towards him. The two were slowly, but surely, closing in on each other before Seifer tried to pull off an overhead strike, only for Levantus to counter with the same thing he did when he was bullying his friends. Levantus intercepted the strike and blocked it with his sword before bringing the butt of his sword into Seifer's stomach, punching him in the face when he crouched down in pain, grabbed his trench coat, began to spin in a circle, and threw him on the ground! Levantus then quickly went and gathered all of the red foam orbs that fell off of Seifer. Seifer quickly got up before he rushed towards Levantus again, only this time, Seifer managed to perform some quick jabs to Levantus as he turned around just in time to see them. After Levantus got hit three times, he quickly parried the blows and sent a palm strike towards Seifer's core, which cause him to wheeze in pain from the sudden lack of oxygen.

Levantus began to think, "Man, this is boring... I might as well knock him out for the hell of it." And he did just that as he collected the rest of the orbs. "Done."

After Levantus collected all of the orbs, he heard the announcer say, "And the winner by K.O. is Levantus!" The crowd roared in applause as Levi smiled towards the crowd before walking off of the stage. When Levantus made it through the crowds, he found Kierhs sitting on a park beach at the edge of the crowd.

Levantus sat down next his wolf-like friend before asking, "So what's up, besides watching me look like an idiot."

Kierhs just smiled before saying, "Not much. I just got some more sea-salt ice cream while you were fighting."

Levantus then chuckled before saying, "I swear that you're addicted to that stuff."

Kierhs replied with a pout, "I can't help it. It's soooo good."

Levi just chuckled again before he heard the announcer say, "Wow, that was probably the quickest match we've ever had! The winner of the match is Vivi!" Levi and Kierhs turned towards the stage to see Hayner lying on the ground while Vivi was currently standing behind him with his sword at his side. Olette and Pence quickly went up on stage to pick him up. The announcer quickly added, "Well then, we will have a ten minute break seeing as this fight was over before it started." Everyone then began to talk among themselves as they waited for the ten minutes to pass.

Kierhs turned towards Levantus as said, "Well it looks like you have some actual competition. You might want to be careful."

Levantus smiled confidently before saying, "Hey, you don't need to worry. We took down Maleficent remember? If we were able to take down an evil sorceress, then I'm pretty sure that I could take down Vivi." Levi turned towards the crowd where he saw Olette and Pence carrying Hayner over towards the bench where Levi and Kierhs were at. Levantus grabbed Kierhs, and they got off so that they could lay Hayner on top of it. As Kierhs was watching Hayner and treating the wounds he somehow received, Levantus turned to his right when he felt like he was being watched. When Levantus turned right, he saw a... Before Levi could ask Olette what happened, he heard a siren go off signifying that the ten minute break was over. He began to walk towards the stage to see Vivi clutching his sword tightly as the announcer commenced the battle.

Levantus got into his offensive stance before charging at Vivi. As Levi was about to perform a horizontal slash, Vivi dodged it by doing a cartwheel and then attempted to slash at Levi's back. Levantus saw that coming so he pulled off a reversal and got behind Vivi and performed a successful three hit combo, hitting Vivi away from him as if he were a golf ball and collecting all of the foam balls that fell off of him. Vivi recovered quickly from Levi's assault and began to charge forward again, but this time Vivi charged towards Levi while doing a corkscrew which hit Levi and made him drop some of his balls. While Vivi was collecting the balls that Levi dropped, he failed to notice the warrior of light sneak up behind him. Before Vivi could register what happened, Levantus had sent him up into the air with his sword before hitting him back down to the stage like a baseball. Vivi landed on the ground pretty hard as all of his foam balls fell off of him. Levantus quickly gathered them all before the buzzer went off.

The announcer grabbed the microphone and said, "And the winner of the finals is Levantus!" The audience cheered towards Levi as he calmly walked towards Vivi and offered his hand. Vivi grabbed it and Levi helped him up as a sigh of sportsmanship.

He then walked over towards the announcer and asked, "I want to challenge the all-time champion."

The announcer was visibly shocked by what he heard and tried to convince Levantus otherwise, but Levantus wouldn't hear of it and just kept asking until the announcer gave in and said, "Well folks, we have a special treat for you. Today, Levantus is going to face the struggle champion, Setzer! Let's all enjoy this amazing match." The audience roared in applause as Setzer strolled onto the stage like a pimp before pulling out his foam sword, pointing it at Levantus.

Setzer looked towards Levantus with a cocky grin before saying, "How about you throw this match for me. I'll make it worth your while."

Levi gave the champion a glare before saying, "Not in a million years." He then got into his stance waiting for the match to begin.

Setzer gave a cold stare before saying, "So be it." As the announcer threw his hand down, there was a big flash of light that made everyone shield their eyes. When the light died down, Setzer was on the ground, faced-down, and Levantus had his foam sword out in front of him in a samurai stance.

After everyone regained their composure, the announcer yelled, "And the new Struggle champion is Levantus!" The announcer yelled out as confetti started falling from the sky while the audience roared in excitement to see the champion claim the trophy and championship belt.

After Levantus put on his belt, he turned towards the crowd and gave them a quick thumbs up. He saw a particular pair shouting his name, so he jumped off the stage and looked at them, confused.

"Ummm... Have we met before?"

Reunion, a new friend and battles

Shriek released her grip on Bryan and let him fall to the floor as she frantically grabbed Levantus's shoulders and a look of fear spread across her face.

"LEEEEEEVVVVIIII!" she screamed, shaking him hoping to jog his memory. Levantus struggled to grab her arms and tear them off of him, but failed as she hugged him tightly. The crowd grew completely silent and everyone stood still. Shriek's ear twitched as she detected a faint, yet menacing, sound. It was unmistakable; it was a low growl of anger. Before she had time to think, she was on the floor with a stranger on top of her. Levantus blinked, astounded at what had just occurred, and then quickly ran over to try and remove Kierhs from the new girl. Bryan quickly jumped up and, seeing Shriek in peril, removed his headphones and made them vanish and too ran over to help Shriek. Both boys struggled to remove the women from each other; Shriek snarling and clawing at the other girl.

Kierhs continued to growl, as Levantus pulled her away she screamed, "Keep your hands off of him! You hear me?!"

"Kierhs calm down," Levantus pleaded.

"Levantus," Bryan said struggling to hold back the anger fueled Shriek, "it's us. Bryan and Shriek."

"I'm sorry, but I don't remember, AHHH!" he screamed as he fell to his knees in agony. A million thoughts flashed off in his head at once, he couldn't tell if they were really thoughts or memories. Laughing. Fighting. Friendship. And the two people in front of him, but who and how? He saw a memory of a giant Heartless and summoned in sword in a reflex and leapt towards Bryan, with his eyes still closed. Bryan jumped back to avoid the attack, what caused Levantus to gasp was a loud and sudden gasp from the crowd that hadn't left the sandlot and watched the entire seen unfold. Levantus stayed as did Bryan, Shriek and Kierhs. Suddenly, the crowd started cheering and chanting in unison.

"FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! STRUGGLE!"

Bryan looked around uneasily at what was unfolding before him. Levantus quickly unsummoned his sword and stood up straight and saw the announcer walking towards him and Bryan. Shriek and Kierhs were still sneering at each other; Shriek hissing and Kierhs growling in a menacing tone.

The announcer finally arrived and spoke, "Well, we might as well give them what they want".

He led the two boys onto the Struggle platform and raised Levantus's hand into the air, causing the crowd to scream in excitement. "The newly dubbed Struggle Champion: Levantus!"

He then walked over and did the same thing with Bryan's arm asking him softly, "Hey kid what's your name?"

"Bryan"

"And the Challenger: Bryan!" the crowd harshly booed, but they were soon drowned out by a giant screech-like cheer. Everyone turned to see Shriek screaming her heart out for Bryan, but once she saw everyone staring at her she stopped and blushed.

"Okay?" the announcer said uneasily, "Now the challenger will choose his struggle bat!"

Bryan looked down and saw three foam bats: one that was simply long and blunt, another that was slightly shorter but thinner and the last was a simple bat with a foam star. He closed his eyes and slowly let his mind and body decide. He closed his grasp and stood up with his hands outstretched diagonal downward, with the star Struggle bat in his hand.

The crowd gasped as did the announcer, "No one ever, in the history of struggles, has chosen that struggle bat. Well, let's see what this challenger has in store. Ready? Struggle!"

Bryan tried to prepare a stance, but there was no time as Levantus dashed forward ready to strike. He swung and hit Bryan clean across the stage, causing him to drop ten orbs. Bryan rubbed his head and saw Levantus heading for the orbs.

"What are those?" Bryan thought to himself. Just then the star on his bat began to glow and the orbs were sucked to him before Levantus could even grab one. Bryan slowly stood back up and stood his ground, he knew this was a struggle and offensive magic must be against the rules, but neutral and defensive magic should be fair game so to speak. Levantus grinded his teeth together in fury, he had just been crowned champ and was not about to lose to some newbie, still something about him seemed faintly familiar. He pushed that thought away and jumped forward followed by a downward swing. Bryan closed his eyes and held up his bat sideways to block it. The entire crowd, and the strugglers, was surprised to see it not only successfully block, but also send Levantus flying back in a gust of wind. Bryan allowed a cocky grin to spread across his face as Levantus attempted to regain his composure. Bryan saw this as the most opportune moment to retaliate.

"Here, I come!" he shouted as he ran towards Levantus.

Before Levantus could complete regain himself, he found himself across the stage with a pain in the right side of his gut. The audience gasped as Levantus finally stood back up, clenching his teeth in rage. He had just become the new Struggle champion, how could he be losing to a complete stranger of the game? Who was this "Bryan" anyway? While Levantus was busy thinking Bryan had manage to scoop up all the fallen orbs. The crowd had the urge to cheer but it didn't seem right, too. Not for a newcomer.

Bryan repositioned himself in his beginning stance and awaited for Levantus to attack. Levantus had to think. He needed a plan, a strategy, anything. Then as his eyes shot open, it hit him. He put his right foot back and lowered his sword slowly. His eyes meant Bryan's. The crowd watched intently, waiting for the next movement.

"Levantus. Even if you don't remember me (sigh) Shriek and I need you." Bryan said hopelessly.

Levantus stared at him, and then suddenly a memory flashed into his head a disappeared the same second. That was all he needed. He pushed himself forward with his right foot dragging his sword behind him. Seeing this, Bryan brought his sword forward to block it. Sadly, for him, this is what Levantus had hoped for. He stopped himself with his left foot and swung around with his right. Now he was a t Bryan's completely exposed back. Bryan's eyes grew wide.

"Such speed," he thought, "he really has grown, even without us."

Just as he finished that thought, Levantus swung his sword sending Bryan flying, but it didn't end there. Levantus released his grip on the sword and sent it flying with Bryan. The sword made contact, causing Bryan to flinch in pain, and then made its way back to its owner. Levantus ran, picked up orbs, caught his sword, threw it, and then repeated the process. This went on for only a matter of seconds before Levantus summoned all his might into the last throw.

"TAKE THIS!"

The sword sent Bryan crashing to the ground with only a single orb beside him. No! He had to draw the fight on longer. He had to get Levantus to remember. He struggled to grab the orb in his weakened state. He shook as he brought his hand to the orb, when suddenly a shadow washed over him. He looked up and met eyes with Levantus, who kneeled down and picked up the final orb. Bryan let his head fall with a thud on the floor, the feeling of defeat and sorrow washing over him. He tried to get back up, but felt too injured to accomplish that simple task. Even a foam sword could still do some serious bruising, that was now a fact Bryan knew for sure.

"Need some help?"

"What?" Bryan asked confused. The one asking to aid him was Levantus, but Bryan couldn't see why. He obviously didn't remember him, did he?

"I said, 'Need some help?' Geesh for someone with a staff of wisdom you sure don't know simple stuff," he paused and smiled as he looked at Bryan, and finished his statement, "Bryan".

Bryan held out his hand and gave Levantus a warm smile, "Glad to see you remembered."

"Ya," Levantus said, picking Bryan up, "the memories came back to me mid-struggle."

"Better than never."

"True."

The two warriors walked off the stage and saw two figures running right towards them at high speeds. They braced themselves as they both were tackled to the floor, knocking most, if not all, of the air out of them. Kierhs was on Levantus hugging his torso and smiling as big as she could.

"I knew you could win! I knew it knew it knew it!" she screamed gleefully.

Not five feet from them, a similar scene had unfolded with Shriek and Bryan. She was perched on top of him, her arms on his chest and her knees between his legs, looking worriedly at him and his bruises.

"BRYYYY!?" she screamed in panic.

"Sh….ri…ek…" he struggled to say, "(cough) you crushing…my lungs!"

She retracted her arms quickly and allowed him to sit up; he stared at her before he gave her a warm smile and assured her it was okay. She smiled, purred and rubbed her head against him as he pet her head. She was happy he was okay and he was happy she cared. All four of them got up and stared at each other. Well, the Bryan and Levantus did at least, Shriek and Kierhs just glared with anger.

Kierhs was the first to break the awkward silence, "Humph, well that's what happens when you challenge the Struggle champion. Especially someone like you." She smirked mockingly.

Shriek grinded her teeth and held back the urge to pounce and the new wolf girl. She couldn't put her claw on it, but this new girl made her mad. The strange thing was it was like an old enemy kind of mad, strange.

"Kierhs give him a break," Levantus said smiling, "He's more of a magic guy anyway. In a real battle I'd be toast. Haha."

The audience had gone back to their homes, because it was getting late. So now, just the four warriors stood there. Two pairs side-by-side. Complete silence. Then Kierhs had an idea that shocked everyone.

"How 'bout it then?" she asked. The others stared at her confused at what she meant. "A real battle, me and Levantus vs. Bryan and….ummm."

"Her name is Shriek," Bryan said.

"Whatever and I know the perfect place to battle. Follow me," with that being said Kierhs ran off towards the right exit of the arena and the others quickly followed.

Eventually, all four of them were standing in front of the gate to the giant mansion. Levantus thought that Kierhs was right about this being the perfect battle spot; away from people, exclusive, and no bystanders hurt accidently. Bryan was struggling to catch his breath from the run he had just finished, but as soon as he did he walked over with Shriek to one side of the wall as Levantus and Kierhs went to the other.

"So what are the rules of this battle," asked Bryan

"No rules," answered Kierhs, "all out, no holding back battle."

With that said Levantus summoned forth his sword, tossing it into the air, catching it and going into his starting stance. Next, Kierhs summoned forth her dual-bladed scythe holding it behind her back and twirling on one foot, giving a mighty slash and posing. Bryan scoffed and decided he might as well join in, but not by himself. He threw the music device into the air, and it changed back into its original form of a staff showering light over Bryan. Bryan then proceed to grab it with one hand, but before the light could fully disappear , Shriek jumped in a corkscrew through it making herself look like a spiraling arrow of light. When the light vanished she clapped her hands and her staff materialized in them. Quickly she fell downward landing on Bryan's staff, which he was still holding in the air. Bryan looked up at her and smiled at how she knew exactly how to make an entrance without him needing to tell her anything, he then looked back at his opponents and smirked.

Kierhs started growling with anger wondering why she didn't think of doing something like that, "Enough with the show, time for the main event!" Yelling that she started running holding her staff with one hand to the side of her, dragging one blade on the floor. Bryan stood his ground and Shriek prepared to pounce; her tail twirling and ears twitching. Kierhs was less than five feet from them as she rose up her staff, preparing to attack, seeing that Bryan flung his staff upwards into the air. Shriek jumped off of the staff and tucked herself into a ball and rolled straight into Levantus' chest before he even knew what was happening. Kierhs was astounded with that tactic and for a brief second she let her eyes leave Bryan, which is all he needed. Once she had gone to look back at Bryan, he had slid underneath her, grabbed his falling staff and then hit her with a blizzard spell sending her falling into the floor. After he hit her and Shriek hit Levantus, the two regrouped in the center of the area and waited for Levantus and Kierhs to recover.

Kierhs slowly got back onto her feet, growling in a low menacing tone. Shriek, hearing this, began hissing and squatting into a position like a cat ready to pounce. Kierhs growled and ripped her scythe straight in half, but didn't break it. In fact she had disassembled into and know had two smaller scythes to fight with. She held both of them sideways; one in front of her face and one behind her back. Levantus got back up rubbing his head, "Did anyone get the license plate on that chocobo?" He asked feeling a slight dizziness.

He shook himself out of the daze and got a serious expression on his face, "Okay, warm up's over."

Bryan stood with his back against Shriek's, as they both waited for their next course of action. He was surprised at how well Shriek was following the plan that he was formulating in his head. Was it instincts or did she really just know him that well? Kierhs howled snapping Bryan out of his thoughts and back into reality, then she stuck one of the half scythes in her mouth and began sprinting towards him and Shriek on all fours. On Shriek's side Levantus was dragging his sword and giving a heavy battle cry, rushing towards them. Once again, as Levantus and Kierhs went full offense, Bryan and Shriek stayed on the defensive, waiting for the most opportune moment to strike. Kierhs jumped into the air, holding out both of her scythes, while on the other side; Levantus had brought his sword back for a strong horizontal swing. Bryan turned his head and looked at Shriek, who had done the same, and nodded his head.

Kierhs was not going to lose. Not to strangers. Not to a cat girl. Not to a scrawny weakling that called himself a mage. Not to anyone, she had to be the strongest she could be; to protect herself and her friends. And maybe…Someone who is more than a friend. All these thoughts raced through her mind as adrenaline coursed through her whole body, unleashing her animal ferocity as she lunged for the attack that would give her and Levantus the upper hand in this battle. She saw him rushing towards them for a split second dragging his sword ready to unleash his might, there was no way they were escaping this attack.

Bryan locked eyes with Kierhs and bent over; then, in a blur of speed, Shriek put her hand on his back, flipped back, and pushed herself into the air towards Kierhs. As that happened Bryan stood back upright and blocked Levantus' sword with his staff just before it could make contact with him. His wrist felt like it was going to snap from the force of the attack. If his staff was made of wood it would have broken with putting up any resistance to the force of the blow. With the imminent feeling of his wrist snapping he had to put forth an actual attack.

"Reflectaga!" he screamed. Then, a glass wall appeared and sent Levantus flying back, and landing with a thud on the ground.

As this event unfolded, Shriek and Kierhs had engaged in a mid-air battle. Kierhs swung both of her scythes, cutting Shriek's arm and one of her ears. As pain coursed through her body, she grinded her teeth and swung the gem of her staff hitting Kierhs dead in the gut. Kierhs was temporarily left without a molecule of air in her and a feeling of light headedness washed over her. She made one last slash with both her scythes and she blacked out. The blade of one of them cut Shriek's mid-section, causing her to bend of in pain, and the bottom of the other one made contact with her forehead then, once all that was over, both of them fell to the ground, unconscious and weak from the assault dealt to them from the other.

On the opposite side, Levantus had regained his balance and glared at Bryan, holding his sword, wondering what to do. Bryan raised his staff with one hand and pointed it at Levantus, smoke coming from the end, showing that he was prepared to attack at the slightest movement.

"Ready to give up?" he asked

"Ha!" Levantus replied, "In your dreams."

The out of nowhere a screeching, ear piercing sound rang through the air, causing both warriors to drop their weapons and fall to their knees covering their ears, trying to block out the sound. Levantus' head felt like it was going to implode and his ears felt like they were leaking blood, and soon he passed out from the force. Bryan tried to stay conscience as the sound ruptured his ear drums and he could only barely make out the figure coming forward: Black coat, head phones, messy dirty blonde hair, and a floating speaker that seemed to be the source of the piercing sound. That was the last thing he saw before he too passed put, just like his friends…

New Enemies and powers

(Bryan + Levantus)

Bryan eventually came to his senses, but by that time it was already the dead of night. He scanned the area surrounding him and came across the body of Levantus. He brought himself to his feet and ran over to try to awaken his friend from his pressure induced coma.

"Levantus!" he screamed, "Wake up! We need to find Shriek and Kierhs quick!"

His friend slowly eased back into the waking world, stood up and summoned his sword. They left in a burst of speed, the sun setting completely on the other side of town, making it harder for them to see. As they reentered the town Levantus could faintly make out a silhouette going up the hill towards the tram-common and chased after it. The avoided the oncoming trolleys and chased after him to see him right in front of the train station, right next to him a sphere of pure sound waves and in its center were the unconscious bodies od Kierhs and Shriek.

"Who are you and what do you want with them?" Levantus asked holding his sword back, preparing for the fight yet to come.

The cloaked man chuckled as he removed his hood. "Oh. It's not what I want with them it's what the boss wants. Heh-heh."

Levantus clenched his fist and teeth as hard as he could. So this was just another lackey of darkness, one who thought of everything as a joke. Just then he felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked and saw it was Bryan wearing the same annoyed look as him. Bryan nodded as Levantus turned back to the man.

"Was that supposed to be a joke?" Levantus asked. "'cuz I'm not laughing!"

"Temper, Temper boy," the man said cautiously. "Wouldn't want to lose that heart of yours to something as easy as hatred," then he smirked, "like her."

As he said that a flock of menacing crows all simultaneously landed on the edge of the train station, staring down at them. Bryan and Levantus looked at them confused as to why they were there and what they had to do with what the man had said? Bryan was about to speak when in a flash of moment the crows started squawking and creating a vortex next to the cloaked man. Bryan grabbed hold of his hoodie, so it wouldn't be sucked in, and grabbed hold of Levantus. Soon, most of the crows had disappeared and in their place was a gothic looking women. She was adorning a tiny black cap on her long midnight black hair that draped over one of her gray-blue eyes, a black corset matched with a long flowing black skirt that covered her legs all the way down to her feet. Over her right shoulder she was slowly twirling a long ancient looking black umbrella; all together she was a Goth person's dream girl with just a hint of innocence on her non-smiling lips. That was the most complex thing though, her lips, they were curved downward like a frown, but the eyes paired with them seemed to just whisper, 'help me'.

The man rubbed his messy blonde hair everywhere and pointed to the women, "Introducing! The goddess of darkness, the mistress of misfortune! Your next battle! Ash!"

The girl's face didn't change in the slightest to this announcement, and then the man opened up a portal of darkness and held out a peace sign as he jumped in along with the sphere holding Bryan and Levantus' friends.

"Wait!" Bryan and Levantus screamed in unison. They both rushed forward only to be thrown back to where they had started. They look and saw that the umbrella, held by the woman, had thrown them both back, this was indeed a cunning weapon. Bryan hadn't even thought something such as an umbrella could be used in combat. The mysterious women brought it back to its original resting place. He didn't know why but when Bryan looked at her he felt the strong urge to cry, to just break down. He wiped his eyes and brought forth his staff, as he stood next to Levantus, both poised for battle. The women slowly started to move, so Bryan and Levantus planted their feet firmly to the ground, braced for any impact. She swirled her umbrella and brought it in front of her to conceal herself behind it. It silently twirled, but it wasn't hypnotic, it didn't summon forth tornados, and as far as Bryan new wind magic could only be used for defense. What was she doing? He lowered his staff, just as Levantus had done with his sword and watched. The in a sudden gust of wind the umbrella and its user turned once again into a swarm of crows that in an instant bombarded the two guardians of light in a cloud of pure black. The birds' talons and beaks scaring them, leaving huge deep marks as they both fell to the floor struggling to hold on their weapons. It took every ounce of his strength to pull himself to his staff through the despicable birds, but after much effort Bryan clenched his staff.

"REFLECTAGA!" he screamed.

In a flash of light the familiar shining glass appeared and pushed back the crows leaving Bryan and his companion in the middle of it. But this moment of peace was short lived as the birds began wildly throwing themselves against the glass, one by one. Hitting it, falling, then immediately repeating the cycle, not slowing down after each impact. Each hit slightly cracked the glass and put more pressure on Bryan, who was slowly running out of MP to keep the shield up.

"I need more power," he thought to himself. "Light!"

Then, in an even bigger burst of light, Bryan had on his wisdom form clothes and the reflecting shield had grown twice as thick. Levantus stared at his friend in amazement wondering how he had done this. Why was it that every time he thought they were equals Bryan went and proved himself to be the better one? Then he noticed a glowing red orb had fallen on the ground, maybe this was his chance to be better. He slowly walked over and crouched by the orb, and then he slowly picked it up a smile of pure greed on his face. Yes. This is what would finally even things out between him and Bryan. Just then, his smile vanished as the orb turned pitch black and covered his body in the same shade.

"AAAAAHHHHH!" he screamed as agony overtook him and he blacked out completely.

Bryan heard the scream and worriedly look over at his friend, which was just the action that Ash needed for him to drop his glass wall. Bryan was quickly bombarded by a huge cloud of feathers and despair. He screamed out a thunder spell hitting every single bird, sending them crashing into the floor, twitching as the electricity coursed through each and every one of their bodies.

He knelt down slowly by his friend, Levantus' body shrouded in darkness.

"Levantus," he slowly said.

Then before he could even flinch, his friends hand shot forward and grabbed his throat with a tight grip that felt it would never let go. Bryan's pupils dilated and his hand tried to pry the one on his throat off as fear washed over him. He struggled to say something, but his friends grip was too tight. Then, in an instant the crows and returned to their feet and shaped back into Ash. That was the last thing Bryan saw as he blacked out from lack of oxygen; what had happened to his friend?

(Levantus)

Sensing the consciousness of his former friend gone, he threw the incapacitated body to the ground without even a hint of caring and now looked at the figure ahead of him. Ash and the darkened Levantus stared at each other: one with a fearsome look of malice and the other keeping true to the innocent act. Levantus flicked out his hand, but his sword did not appear as he had hoped. He began rapidly flicking out his wrist, but to no avail did his sword materialize. He brought forth his hand to his face and clenched it into a fist as he growled a deep menacing growl.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked. "Darkness made your toy go bye bye?"

In his new state he didn't find that statement even the slightest bit funny. He crouched down on all fours; his feet flat, his knees bent and his palms flat on the ground as he prepared to attack. Ash brought her umbrella to her side and patiently waited as the Station Clock Tower rang with the time turning to twelve 'o clock midnight. As soon as the echo of the bell and died off the dark figure, that was once Levantus, leaped forward in a form that resembled a wolf about to pounce atop a rabbit. Only problem was that this bunny had teeth and a weapon as well. Before he could finally reach her she swung the umbrella directly at him, slamming him into the ground. She scoffed at the foolishness of this creature and brought her umbrella over her shoulder again, and then brought her gaze the spot where Levantus was 'supposedly' lying dead. Her face lost its innocence for a moment as the floor was vacant of any form of life. As she wondered he could have possibly gone, she felt warm moist air on the back of her neck. She slowly turned and saw the shadowy figure staring at her with its lifeless yellow eyes snarling. Before she could do anything he slapped her with his palm, causing her to fall to the floor with a thud. Her hand released its grip on her umbrella as she pushed herself back up with one hand and laid their; her look of innocence resembling now a look of fear. The shadow flew over leaving a trail of darkness and grabbed her lifting her off of her feet. He growled out her, and formed the darkness on his hand into claws. That was when she smiled and brought forth a vial, soon the darkness was sucked off of him and into the glass vial. She gave him a peck on the check and disappeared into a cloud of smoke and let him fall lifelessly next to Bryan.

Two unconscious and weak. Two kidnapped and taken to an unknown location. And one lost completely for the time being. What fate will befall our heroes? Who are these mysterious beings and their 'boss'? Can anyone help our heroes? Maybe new being from another world? Will we find out? Yes. Soon… To be continued…


End file.
